I pay my respects to Aboriginal and Zenadh Kes elders past and present, and acknowledge the ongoing culture, connections and custodianship of First Nations people to the lands and waters where I live and work. 

Dr. Tarryn Handcock (she/they) is a cross-disciplinary designer, artist and academic whose writing, walking, and site-responsive making explore relationships between people, place and dress in connection with creative caretaking and ethical practices.

Broadly, their research investigates where and wear: how fashion is produced through fashion spaces and places in relation to a phenomenology of bodies, skin and dress. Tarryn’s creative practice integrates community engagement and urban flâneurie; methods for slow observation, creative care and relationship-building between the human and more-than-human; and exploring urban and body forms, surfaces and actions as ‘body-sites’ for conceptualising, designing and engaging with artefacts of dress. 

Tarryn holds a practice based PhD in fashion and textiles from RMIT University, and a Bachelor of Design (Honours with the University Medal) majoring in object and jewellery design from the College of Fine Art, UNSW. Their work has been published, presented and exhibited at conferences, panels, and workshops locally and internationally.

They currently lecture in design at RMIT University in the School of Fashion and Textiles, on the lands of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung language groups of the Eastern Kulin Nations (Naarm, Australia). Tarryn is an active member of Reconciliation Action Plan and human ethics committees, and a belonging and diversity advocate. Their curriculum design and teaching are connected to these values, and aim to cultivate skills and interest in working together toward ethical shared futures.