About Me

I am the Deputy Director of Student Education in the School of Design at the Universiry of Leeds. I joined the School in 2021 and since then have been appointed WIT Lead, Programme Leader of the BA Fashion Marketing and was promoted to Senior Lecturer. Before joining Leeds, from December 2018 to February 2021, I was Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Huddersfield Business School. In 2019, I completed my PhD in Fashion Marketing and Branding at the Art, Design, and Architecture School at the University of Huddersfield. My thesis regards transformative experiences in the luxury fashion domain. My research focused on luxury fashion brands, and in particular on the opportunity to exploit brands’ art foundations to provide transformative experiences to various audiences.

Before starting the PhD, I did a Master in International Fashion Management at the same school. Prior to this, I did a Bachelor in Economics and Accountancy, and a Master in Business Consulting at the Università degli Studi di Brescia (Business School), in Italy, where I come from.

My research interests mainly regard Fashion Strategic Branding, Consumer Engagement, Consumer Education, and Retailing. Further research interests: Artificial Intelligence in the Marketing context, Fashion Marketing Communication.

My latest projects

My Publications

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

A. Grassi, “We Like That it Matters!”: Towards a Socially Sustainable Retail Store Brand Experience, Sustainability, vol. 14, n. 23, December 2022.

J. Roberts & A. Grassi, A review of studies on virtual layout and atmospherics - potential applications to the fashion industry, The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, vol. 31, n. 4, June 2021.

A. Grassi & M. Vallati, An Exploratory Study on the Use of Artificial Intelligence to Initiate Legal Understanding for Business Development, Journal of Applied Logics - IfCoLog Journal, vol. 8, n. 4, May 2021.

A. Grassi, Art to Enhance Consumer Engagement in the Luxury Fashion Domain, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 24, n. 3, April 2020.

F. Cerutti, A. Grassi, & M. Vallati, Unveiling the Oracle: Artificial Intelligence for the XXI Century, Intelligent Decision Technologies: An International Journal, vol. 12, n. 3, December 2018.

A. Grassi, S. Wigley, Gucci Inclusivity is the New Exclusivity, International Journal of Costume and Fashion, vol. 18, n. 1, June 2018.

A. Grassi, T.D. Cassidy, S. Wigley, Luxury Fashion Brands Ownership Of Private Art Foundations: A New Way Of Conceiving Marketing, Journal of Marketing Trends, vol. 4, n. 2, January 2018.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

"COVID vaccine: celebrity endorsements work – even if people don’t like it". Commentary on The Conversation UK - December 1, 2020 - https://theconversation.com/covid-vaccine-celebrity-endorsements-work-even-if-people-dont-like-it-151130?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton

"Luxury fashion brands are making a splash in the art world". Commentary on The Conversation UK -

April 15, 2019 - https://theconversation.com/luxury-fashion-brands-are-making-a-splash-in-the-art-world-114877

A. Grassi, S. Swindells, & S. Wigley (2018). "The Art Foundations of Luxury Fashion Brands: An Exploratory Investigation". In Engaging with Fashion. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Rodopi.

CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

E. Rathbone & A. Grassi, “Can You Believe That?” – On Fashion Brands Green Communications And Gen Z’s Perception Of Brand Credibility, Global Management Conference at Seoul, 2023

A. Grassi, “Did You Know That…” – Facilitating Cultural-Centred Conversations And Embracing Societal Issues Acknowledgement To Draw Consumers Back In Store, Global Management Conference at Seoul, 2023

A. Grassi & E. Arrigo, Customer education in the fashion retail store setting: rethinking the retail function, Academy of Marketing Conference, 2021

A. Grassi, Being Transformed by Luxury Fashion Brands’ Art Foundations, Global Marketing Conference at Seoul, 2020 (My presentation)

H. Moran, A. Grassi, It’s no man’s land! Generation Z cultural shift regarding masculinity and the influence of social media on men’s fashion consumption, 2nd Fashion Marketing and Consumption Discourse Colloquium, 2020

A.Grassi, Being Transformed by Luxury Fashion Brands' Art Foundations. Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy, 48th, (8093), 2019

A. Grassi, Consumer Engagement Through Contemporary Art - Fondazione Prada, The Global Fashion Management Conference (GFMC) 2019.

M. Vallati, A. Grassi, AI to Facilitate Legal Analysis in the PESTLE Context, The EMerging Technology conference (EMiT), 2019

A. Grassi, Providing Transformative Experiences: A Marketing Tool for Luxury Fashion Brands, 1st Fashion Marketing and Consumption Discourse Colloquium, 2018.

A. Grassi, S. Wigley, Inclusivity is the New Exclusivity: The Case of Gucci S.p.A., 47th European Marketing Academy Conference, 2018.

A. Grassi, T.D. Cassidy, S. Wigley, Luxury Fashion Brands Ownership Of Private Art Foundations: A New Way Of Conceiving Marketing, 1st Luxury Industry Symposium of the International Marketing Trends Conference, 2017.

A. Grassi, Luxury Fashion Brands' Art Foundations in the Context of Public Engagement: An Exploratory Investigation, FTC Association Research Event, 2017.

A. Grassi, S. Wigley, Transcending the Conventional Relationship Luxury Brand-Customer in Fashion Through Private Art Foundations, International Congress on Visual Culture, 2017.

A. Grassi, Luxury Fashion Brands' Art Foundations in the Context of Public Engagement: An Exploratory Investigation, Fashion Across Boundaries: PhD Workshop, IUAV University of Venice, 2016.

A. Grassi, S. Swindells, S. Wigley, Luxury Fashion Brands' Art Foundations - An Exploratory Investigation, The Fashion Project - Exploring Critical Issues - 8th Global Meeting, 2016.

INVITED LECTURES & TALKS

28/02/2020
Visiting lecturer at Sotheby's Institute of Art (London) - "Art Foundations as a Brand Strategy for Luxury Fashion Brands”

18/10/2019

Visiting lecturer at Sotheby's Institute of Art (London) - "Consumer Engagement Through the Arts in the Luxury Fashion Domain".

15/02/2019

Visiting lecturer at Sotheby's Institute of Art (London) - "Art Foundations as a Brand Strategy for Luxury Fashion Brands".

26/11/2018

Invited speaker at ItaLeeds (University of Leeds) event "Engaging with Creativity: Italian Challenges from Local to Global". Talk title - Unveiling the fashion luxury secret: Gucci & Co. are getting into teaching.

SERVICES

Reviewer for Global Marketing Conference (GMC) - 2023

Member of Conference Programme Committee and Reviewer for FACTUM23 - 2023

Reviewer for The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research

Organiser of the workshop "Consumer-Brand Power Dynamics & Collective Wellbeing" for Academy of Marketing Conference - 2022

Reviewer for the Global Marketing Conference (GMC) GAMMA – 2020

Reviewer for the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management - an International Journal

Reviewer for the Global Fashion Management Conference (GFMC) GAMMA - 2019

Reviewer for the European Marketing Academy Conference EMAC Regional Conference - 2019

Reviewer for the journal Cogent Business & Management

MEDIA & PRESS

05/07/2024

Expert comment on Yorkshire Evening Post on football kits and team representation - Link to news

16/09/2021

Expert comment on Ticker News about consumer behaviour trends 18 months into the pandemic.

https://tickernews.co/

14/12/2020

Expert comment on Vox about the use of Celebrity Endorsement to promote COVID-19 vaccine. https://www.vox.com/recode/22174135/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-celebrities-influencer-marketing

11/12/2020

Interview about the use of celebrity endorsement to promote the COVID vaccine on BBC Radio Essex during Tony Fisher program.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08zbkcp

03/12/2020

Interview about the use of celebrity endorsement to promote the COVID vaccine on Radio Sputnik

https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/coronavirus-vaccine-credibility-is-the-key

24/08/2019

Expert comment on Forbes about to luxury fashion brands' promotional strategies in China.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2019/08/24/luxury-brands-want-to-attract-chinese-consumers-but-why-do-they-keep-getting-it-so-wrong/#158ba8396a6e

08/04/2019

Expert comment on an Italian national newspaper La Repubblica for an article about luxury fashion brands and their investments in the arts.

https://www.repubblica.it/dossier/le-guide/nuovi-valori/2019/04/08/news/il_lusso_sceglie_l_arte_il_successo_della_strana_coppia-223541426/?ref=search

15/01/2019

Interview about Marks & Spencer closure in Huddersfield town centre on BBC Radio Leeds during Gayle Lofthouse program. University blog entry on M&S closure in Huddersfield

14/12/2018

Expert comment on the "death" of the high-street for a Yorkshire Post article - "Ten years on, the wonder of Woolworth is that its shops are still in business".