Hi, I’m Kristen, and ssstudio sullivan is my research and design studio. I partner with brands, organizations, and institutions working at the intersection of design, culture, and equitable creative economies. My work spans product design & creative direction, research on women’s entrepreneurship in creative sectors in the Global South, and curriculum development on fashion, culture, and sustainability.

Work

I work at the intersection of fashion, artisan enterprises, and creative economies, bridging fashion industry experience with research and systems thinking.

For impact initiatives and NGOs: I provide research, strategy, and program design support focused on women-led creative businesses in the Global South. This includes market analysis, coaching, and field-informed insights.

For brands: I offer creative direction and strategic consulting, from product development and seasonal direction to artisan collaboration strategies.

For universities and educational institutions: I design courses and teach on sustainable fashion, artisan collaboration, and creative research. My recent work includes guest lecturing with the London College of Fashion and Texas State University.

Writing

Sketches

Injiri (India)

With a social media feed that combines sumptuous editorial photography, archival research, and intimate glimpses of the artistic process, Injiri is a body of work that is a tactile cartography of India’s mastery of craft and limitless creativity. Built entirely from within India by someone raised in the craft traditions, Injiri is something like a reclamation.

Chinar Farooqui, a textile designer raised in Rajasthan and trained at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, founded Injiri in 2009. Drawing on history, the arts, and a profound love of her country's artisans and artistic traditions, she works with a constellation of master weavers around the country, spotlighting techniques such as Kutchi extra weft (Bhujodi) in Gujarat, Jut embroidery in Kutch, appliqué of Barmer, and Madras checks from Chennai. The result is a rich and enchanting body of work that includes home décor and women’s apparel; each stitch and every embellishment imparts the geography and unrelenting devotion of its creators.

Siafu (Kenya)

A steady rhythm hums just below the voices in the Siafu studio, the sound of looms in concert across the workshop floor. In Nairobi, a team of artisan weavers creates cotton textiles in colours drawn from the city and founder Gladys Macharia’s imagination: sky blue, electric orange, lavender purple, and olive. Each piece is deliberate, radiating that particular warmth of human touch and intention. Gladys’ love of design took her to Florence for apparel and jewellery training. Upon her return, she founded Siafu with a singular ambition: to put Kenyan textiles at the forefront of African design. 

DAR Proyectos (Peru)

High in the Peruvian Andes, semi-precious gemstones in lush natural tones are shaped into objects to hold, turn over, and play with. DAR Proyectos was born from a chance meeting in the Amazon, perhaps written in the stars, between textile designer Jenny Boucher and industrial designer Mauricio Navarro. Navarro grew up surrounded by the stone carving traditions of the Andean highlands. Working together with local artisans, they transform gemstones into puzzles, games, and home décor. The studio’s work somehow feels inspired by Jenny and Mauricio’s first encounter: objects designed for human interaction. A completely local operation, DAR Proyectos has won multiple international design awards and represents a rare alchemy between ancestral craft, contemporary industrial design, and a philosophy of connection.

Abstract

As I was developing academic research related to women-owned artisan enterprises in the Global South, I read a 2020 essay by historian Glenn Adamson, "Why the Art World is Embracing Craft," where he made the sharp point, "Craft is also a rich tapestry of ethnic diversity, having been practiced expertly by people of all nations and regions for millennia. You can make a strong case that the long-standing marginalization of the crafts—and the self-evidently crazy idea that painting isn’t one—was just the art world’s way of practicing sexism and racism, barely disguised as a policing of disciplines rather than people.” His observation stuck with me and became the starting point for the following submission I made to the RAM-T International Workshop Series, Circulations: Works, Artists, and Ideas in the Art Market, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech. 

Blurring Boundaries: Art, Craft, Fashion, and the Reshaping of Circulation in the Art Market

Historically, art, craft, and fashion have coexisted in distinct spheres, occasionally overlapping, but with limited relational analysis beyond shared aesthetics, inspirations, or visual influence. In recent years, however, a challenging global economic landscape, intensified cross-sector competition for cultural audiences, and renewed interest in craft have accelerated a reconfiguration of the relationships between art, craft, and fashion. Craft, long obscured by strict and exclusionary definitions within both art and fashion, has re-emerged as a key reference point, revealing new pathways of circulation across domains. 

This paper examines how the blurred boundaries between art, craft, and fashion are reshaping circulation in global contemporary art markets. It asks how circulation operates when historical frameworks of categorization, visibility, and valuation in art markets evolve, and it analyzes the specific implications for women artists, artisans, and designers in Global South contexts. 

Drawing on qualitative, comparative analysis, the research combines interviews, institutional and market analysis, and selected cross-sector case studies positioned at the intersection of art, craft, and fashion. Particular attention is paid to the role of intermediaries, including curatorial platforms, prizes, exhibitions, and designer-artisan-artist collaborations, as conduits of circulation and value translators across domains.

Research

“Field of Vision: Women Visual Artists in East Africa, Their Art Worlds, and Career Trajectories" Ongoing independent research. An examination of the intermediary ecosystems shaping the visibility, mobility, and market valuation of women visual artists across East Africa.

The Future Artisan Cooperative / Artisans Bureau: Independent research and systems design 2024-present. An investigation into how women-owned, design-attuned artisan enterprises in the Global South navigate international markets and what a co-created, cooperative infrastructure might look like. Beginning with interviews with 9 women-owned brands across eight countries, this research developed into a cooperative framework, a systems design model, and professional project partnership with Dr. Francesco Mazzarella’s MA class, “Fashion Practices for Social Change," at the London College of Fashion, UAL.

“Future Artisan Cooperative: Shaping a Sustainable Fashion Ecosystem” Co-authored with Dr. Francesco Mazzarella, London College of Fashion, UAL. Currently under revision.