Matthew Coats was educated at the London College of Fashion and, until 2017, was a fabric designer at Chanel in Paris, working for Karl Lagerfeld. After spending several years working as a fashion designer for both luxury and high-street brands. Matthew is now lecturing in Fashion at the University of Brighton, having previously lectured in Creative Design at Birmingham City University. Alongside his work in education, he also runs his own fashion-led interior textiles business. Having also worked as an agent at one of London’s leading model agencies, Storm, Matthew is familiar with the many sides of the fashion industry. He feels passionately about the cultural significance of the industry and the continuing importance of fashion education.

Matthew Coats research interests are fashion/textiles, surface design and narrative fashion. His works often utilize textiles and fashion as a communicative platforms and using traditional aesthetics and techniques as the foundation for the creative.  Although new to academia, Matthew is starting to connect the roles as researcher and practitioner.