Vanessa Lingham

Biography

Vanessa Lingham is a Costume Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Production Arts programme and specialises in performance costume.  Before dedicating her work fulltime to Guildhall School, Vanessa worked as a costume freelancer in the British Film and TV industry.  Vanessa is also a current doctoral candidate at Guildhall School investigating the work that costume does in representing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities and people on stage and screen.  Her work is a timely response to increasing awareness and activism seeking to address the marginalisation of GRT voices. As a costume specialist, Vanessa’s practice research is about representing cultures outside her own. 

Vanessa is looking at how respect and care should be embraced in approaches to material objects, people and their stories within the costume realisation process.  Vanessa is particularly interested in how a costume practitioner balances the risk of stereotyping, misrepresentation, and cultural appropriation when their craft skills are being squeezed by production requirements.  Vanessa holds a distinction in Masters of Arts: History and Culture of Fashion, from the London College of Fashion.  She has published in the peer-reviewed journal Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, Intellect.  Vanessa has a PGCert in Performance Teaching and core foundation skills in coaching and mentoring for artistic training.