Ms Marloes ten Bhömer

About

I am a Senior Research Fellow in Design and and chair of the Research Through Design group at Kingston University. 

My practice-based research focuses on women's footwear from technical, material and cultural perspectives. My current research considers the role design and media play in the social and cultural formation of the ‘high-heeled woman', in turn challenging the hardened typologies that uphold repressive stereotypes with regard to women's social and physical mobility.

I am interested in expanding and diversifying the theoretical and contextual frameworks of fashion through both my research practice and teaching. From 2012 until 2015 I was Professor of Fashion at the Universiät der Künste in Berlin where I initiated a multi-disciplinary approach, seeking to challenge pre-conceived and limiting parameters in Fashion education. I am also a member of OUTSKIRTS, a collective of fashion practitioners and academics who explore and develop Practice Based Fashion Research to empower alternative modes of being and doing fashion subsequently redefining and repositioning the discipline and nurturing discursive fashion. 

Pursuing my interests via my research practice, exhibitions, conference presentations and pedagogy, I lecture and run workshops regularly at a number of international institutions.

Academic responsibilities

Senior Research Fellow

Qualifications

  • MA Design Products, Royal College of Art London, 2003
  • BA Hons 3D design, Higher School of Arts Arnhem, ArtEZ, 2001

Research

With my work I aim to consistently challenge generic typologies of women's shoes through experiments with non-traditional technologies and material techniques. By reinventing the design methodology and the process by which footwear is made, the resulting shoes serve as unique examples of new aesthetic and structural possibilities, while also serving to criticise the conventional status of women's shoes as cultural objects.

My research-based practice is focused on the social and cultural construct of the ‘high-heeled woman', and the intersections between craft and technological production, design methodology, the iconology of materials and feminist theory. I aim to dissect the role design and media play in the social and cultural formation of the high-heeled woman, in turn challenging the hardened typologies that uphold repressive stereotypes with regard to women's social and physical mobility. My objective is to understand and propose alternatives to the status quo.

The research informs critical works produced in a variety of mediums ranging from film, objects, installations and shoe-artifacts. It is disseminated in a variety of contexts through international exhibitions, conferences, artist talks and in both academic and non-academic publications. Notable exhibitions were held at the Museum of Art and Design New York, Modemuseum in Hasselt and the Victoria and Albert Museum. My work was nominated for the Designs of the Year, Design Museum London (2009) and was selected for the Jerwood Contemporary Makers Prize and Exhibition (2010) and won the Best Idea award at Copenhagen Fashion Film Festival 2019. My work is part of the permanent collection of the Fashion Institute of Technology New York. From 2011-2013 I was a Stanley Picker Fellow, Kingston University and in 2008 a Designer in Residence at D-Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology. I welcome proposals from prospective PhD and MA by Research students working in the areas of discursive fashion, footwear, embodiment, gender, craft and technology.

Qualifications and expertise

  • Chair of the Research Through Design Group, Kingston University

Areas of specialism

  • Footwear and fashion typologies
  • Fashion and embodiment; gender, design, movement and mobility
  • High heeled footwear in relation to gender representations in various media
  • Critical fashion practice
  • Craft, technological manufacturing and design methodology, from practical and cultural perspectives.

Research student supervision

Publications

Number of items: 32.

Artefact/Device

Ten Bhomer, Marloes [Artist] (2022) Loopshoe / 2004. (Shoe). Leather and plastic.

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] (2015) Bluepanelshoe. (shoe).

Bhomer, Marloes, ten [Designer] (2010) Rapidprototypedshoe: construct #2. (Shoe).

Bhomer, Marloes ten [Designer] (2009) After hours : Rotationalmouldedshoe, Mutant parade, Rotationalmouldingmachine, Color, Testpieces, Heels on hold, Cavity unfolded, Last, Slice. (Grouping of artefacts).

Book Section

ten Bhömer, Marloes (2021) Mulheres em Movimento = Women in motion. In: Galhano, Joana, (ed.) O Ato de Caminhar = The act of walking : Marloes ten Bhömer. S. João da Madeira : Câmara Municipal de S. João da Madeira. pp. 8-11. ISBN 9789729148651

ten Bhomer, Marloes, Hoette, Ruby, Pollmann, Alexa, Poslethwaite, Susan and Thiel, Kat (2017) Breaking the script. In: Thornquist, Clemens and Bigolin, Ricarda, (eds.) Everything and everybody as material : beyond fashion design methods. Boras, Sweden : The School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University and The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras. pp. 226-231. ISBN 9789188269799

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2017) Research as object, towards a material and cultural investigation. In: Thornquist, Clemens and Bigolin, Ricarda, (eds.) Everything and everybody as material : beyond fashion design methods. Boras, Sweden : The School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University and The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Boras. pp. 220-225. ISBN 9789188269799

Conference or Workshop Item

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Researcher] (2022) Walking in film as muscle memory training and movement bias development? In: Women walking: histories, movement and mobilities; 24-26 Mar-2022, Online.

Ten Bhömer, Marloes (2022) Masterclass : the act of walking. In: Masterclass : the act of walking [o ato de caminhar]; 09 Feb 2022, Held online. (Unpublished)

ten Bhömer, Marloes, Hoette, Ruby, Thiel, Kat and Pollmann, Alexa (2021) The educator - gatekeeper or enabler? In: The Digital Multilogue on Fashion and Education : A Conference on Learning and Teaching Fashion in Theory and Practice; 01 - 02 Oct 2021, Held online. (Unpublished)

ten Bhömer, Marloes [Co-creator], Hoette, Ruby [Co-creator], Pollman, Alexa [Co-creator] and Thiel, Kat [Co-creator] (2020) The educator : gatekeeper or enabler. In: Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education; 25 Sep 2020, Held online. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2020) Women and mobility. In: By the Dark of the Moon (part of the Design Film Festival); 22 Sep 2020, online.

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2020) Women's gait in cinema as design subject. In: Montage : design and film; 08 Jan 2020, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2020) The gendering of a woman's gait and shoes as design subject. In: Invited talk; 08 Jan 2020, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2019) The parameters required to support a woman in motion. In: Research Through Design 2019, Methods and Critique; 19-22 Mar 2019, Delft, Netherlands.

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2018) Alternative fashion modes in education. In: Impulse, Mode und Lehre; 26 Oct 2018, Halle, Germany. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2018) Walking women : shoe construction and female gait as a design subject. In: KYOTO Design Lab : Public Lecture; 20 Apr 2018, Kyoto, Japan. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2017) Research as object : towards a material and cultural investigation. In: Everything and everybody as material : beyond fashion design methods; 07 - 09 Jun 2017, Boras, Sweden.

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2016) Research as object. In: Undesign symposium; 02 Jun 2016, Vienna, Austria.

van Heeren, Clive [Contributor], ten Bhomer, Marloes [Contributor] and Fleming, Kathryn [Contributor] (2016) Toward an alternative methodology. In: Ravensbourne Late : Wearable futures; 20 Apr 2016, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2014) Cultural and associative opportunities and limitations of traditional and technological production. In: Global Fashion 2014 : Rethinking & Reworking Global Fashion; 20 -21 Nov 2014, Ghent, Belgium. (Unpublished)

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2014) What is the relevance of the trench coat in the time of drone wars? In: Design Culture Salon 11 : How do Fashion Cycles and Design Culture Interact?; 14 Nov 2014, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Ten Bhomer, Marloes (2013) Research practice. In: Design Symposium in memory of Alex Ward; 11 Nov 2013, Jerusalem. (Unpublished)

Exhibition

ten Bhomer, Marloes (2021) O ato de Caminhar = The Act of Walking : Marloes ten Bhömer. .

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Artist] (2017) Space for Fashion Thinking & Practice : Review, Reflect, Revise. .

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] and Toran, Noam [Artist] (2017) Beats Working. Studio ZZM. .

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Curator] (2016) The Activated Object : Product Design Finals. The Activated Object : Product Design Finals. .

Ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] (2016) Shapeshifters, 3D Printing the Future. .

Moving Image/Broadcast

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] (2018) The Path She Walks. (design film).

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] (2014) Annabelle, Barbra, Becky, Alexis, Krystle, Ellen, Olive, Eve and Kirsten, not stumbling, sliding, sinking falling or oblivious. (design film).

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] (2013) Material Compulsion. (design research film).

ten Bhomer, Marloes [Designer] (2012) Women in Various States. (design research film).

This list was generated on Wed Sep 13 07:15:11 2023 BST.

Videos of my work