Sandra Fiona Brown

Sass Brown is the Founding Dean of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. Prior to joining DIDI, Sass was the Interim Dean for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s School of Art and Design in New York. She is a graduate of FIT’s Global Fashion Management Masters program, holds her Bachelors degree in Fashion Design from Ravensbourne College of Art and Design in the UK, and is currently undertaking her PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University, also in the UK.

As a fashion designer with a background in sustainable development, Brown is an advisor for Sustainia100, the annual Danish sustainable solutions guide that honours developments in sustainability across a multitude of industries. She was also an Associate Design Researcher on the MISTRA Future Fashion educational research consortium that advises on the integration of sustainability into mainstream fashion.

As a researcher, writer and educator, Brown’s area of expertise is ethical fashion in all its forms from slow design and heritage craft skills to recycling, reuse and alternative business models. She has published papers and spoken around the world on the topic of sustainable fashion, she has served as a sustainable design advisor to women’s cooperatives, educational institutions, governmental agencies, NGO’s and small and medium sized enterprises around the world. Her publications include the books Eco Fashion and ReFashioned for British publishers Laurence King, are also published in Italian as well as Spanish.