Clare Lopeman is a British Fashion Designer, Researcher and Educator, with over 20 years of pedagogical and professional experience both nationally and internationally. 

She is a graduate of The Royal College of Art and Central St Martins, as well as Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

She is best known for her dynamic, graphic collections that explore the creative tensions and intersections across cultural histories, archives and political ideologies. Inspired by French couture practices and their influences behind the Iron Curtain. Clare’s collections have been described by Susie Lau as Spying through English Eyes and featured in Fashion Theory, The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, The Guardian, i-D, The New York Times, The Pop, Style Bubble and The Telegraph. 

Clare is currently a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art, her research proposes Fashion Counterintelligence as an embodied form of artisanal encryption and speculative couture. She is a Visiting Lecturer on the Masters of Research at The Royal College of Art and Senior MA Fashion Tutor at Istituto Marangoni London.

Previously, Clare established and led the first transnational BA (Hons) Fashion Design Degree in Moscow, developing a prolific, globally facing fashion department at the British Higher School of Art & Design, affectionately known as Britanka with collaborative partner University of Hertfordshire. Over 14 years, she introduced a sea-change to the academic landscape, building an ambitious and dynamic fashion design programme, the first of its kind in Russia.

Under her creative direction and leadership, the course nurtured a generation of future facing fashion designers, entrepreneurs and creative disruptors. With Graduates attracting press coverage in British Vogue, The Calvert Journal, Dazed Digital, i-D,  L’Officiel, The New York Times, ShowStudio, The Guardian, Vogue Italia and Vogue Russia. In September 2020 Vogue Russia placed a piece from a graduate collection on its special edition digital front cover. 

Clare’s alumni include Maria Jahnkoy shortlisted for the LVMH prize and Forbes ‘30 under 30’, ZDDZ, Alisa Kuzembaeva, OPW and NastyaMasha. Clare’s alumni have gone on to dress Lady Gaga, Rita Ora, Irina Gorbacheva and Kyle Jenner and worked with Adidas Originals, David Koma, Eudon Choi, Gareth Pugh, Giles Deacon, Mary Katrantzou, Richard Quinn, 12 Storeez, Tigran Avetisyan and Vika Gazinskaya.

Clare is based in the UK, collaborating on academic, creative and cultural initiatives within the fashion industry and wider research networks.