Mairi MacKenzie
Mairi MacKenzie
- Research Fellow
- Job Title
- Research Fellow
- School or Academic Area
- School of Design
- School or Academic Area Supervised for
- School of Design
- M.MacKenzie@gsa.ac.uk
- Professional Address
- 167 Renfrew St Glasgow G3 6RQ
- Country
- United Kindom
Biography
Mairi MacKenzie is a fashion historian and curator based in Glasgow.
She is Research Fellow in fashion History and Curating at The Glasgow School of Art, and a visiting lecturer at Liverpool School of Art and Design and Glasgow University. Mairi’s current research is focussed upon social and cultural histories of perfume; the history of dressing up and going out in Glasgow; and the relationship between clothing and identity in the life and work of the artist Steven Campbell.
She has curated exhibitions at Mode Museum, Antwerp, V&A Dundee and her most recent exhibition (co-curated with Beca Lipscombe) was ‘Dressing Above Your Station: Fashion and Textiles in the Life and Work of the Artist Steven Campbell’ a digital exhibition that took place in a virtual version of Tramway, Glasgow in 2022.
Research Interests
Fashion history
Cultural history
Curating as research
Digital exhibitions
Archives
Grants
RSE Small Research Grants for Perfume and Fantasy: The Social Life of Scent, 2026, 4353.50 - PI
Creative Scotland, Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development Programme, 2020, £60,420 for Dressing Above Your Station, Exhibition - PI
Scottish Funding Council Standard Innovation Voucher Scheme for Dressing Above Your Station, Exhibition, 2021/22, £4,616.- PI
PGR Supervision Interests
fashion history, cultural history, social history, curating as research, digital fashion exhibitions, vernaculars of style in Glasgow, archives, cultural and social history of perfume.
Current PGR Students
Haitang Zhang, 'A Museum of Intimate Space: House Museums and Speculative Displays', 2025 (passed with corrections)
Elodie Lemaire-Nowinski, 'Portrait of Women in Tartan: An enquiry inot the (in)tangible of the Scottish icon through women's voices, 2026 submission
Latest Additions
- MacKenzie, Mairi and Lipscombe, Beca (2022) Dressing Above Your Station: Fashion and Textiles in the Life and Work of the Artist Steven Campbell. A virtual version of Tramway 2, 31 March - 26 June 2022
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2021) Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960-Today. V&A Dundee, Riverside Esplanade, Dundee, DD1 4EZ, 1st May 2021- 9th January 2022
- MacKenzie, Mairi and Russell, Ken (2020) Teddy Girls by Ken Russell. In: Teddy Girls. Happy Dancer Books, London. ISBN 978-1-8382113-1-8
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2020) The Scent of Roses: ‘The inward fragrance of each other’s heart’. In: Ravishing: The Rose in Fashion. Fashion and Textile Design . Yale University Press, London & New York, pp. 176-191. ISBN 9780300250084
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2019) Football, fashion and unpopular culture: David Bowie’s influence on Liverpool Football Club casuals 1976-79. In: David Bowie and Transmedia Stardom. Routledge. ISBN 9780367356750
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2019) Football, fashion and unpopular culture: David Bowie’s influence on Liverpool Football Club casuals 1976-79. Celebrity Studies, 10 (1). pp. 25-43. ISSN 1939-2397
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2016) The Seine Net Queens: A Raw History. Other. Timespan Museum and Arts Centre / Panel.
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2015) Working for Biba. National Galleries Scotland, 15th October 2015
- MacKenzie, Mairi and O'Neill, Kimberly (2013) Visualising the Rite: Glasgow School of Art and the Cultivation of Cross-Disciplinary Practice. In: Revisiting the Rite: The Rite of Spring Centenary Conference. Rivendale Press.
- MacKenzie, Mairi (2012) The Scottishness of Scottish Dress. In: The Inventors of Tradition. Koenig, London. ISBN 3863350529
