Academic leadership and faculty

MA Fashion Curation (Distinction), London College of Fashion, UK
BA (Honours) Fashion Design, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

Daniela Monasterios Tan is an accomplished fashion researcher and curator, specialising in the cultural and social significance of fashion. She is currently a PhD student at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. With a background in Fashion Curation studies from the London College of Fashion, she has gained valuable experience supporting curators and archivists in research and costume mounting. Her contributions have been featured in prestigious institutions such as The Barbican, Frida Kahlo Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, the Palais Galliera and Westminster University Menswear Archive.

In addition to her curatorial work, Daniela was co-host of the vodcast In the Vitrine with Dr Nadya Wang, exploring the business, culture and pleasures of fashion with a specific focus on Singapore, Asia and beyond. She also collaborates with artist Stephanie J Burt on the collective A Stubborn Bloom, delving into femininity through the media of fashion, film and material culture. Their collaboration has resulted in a compelling series of films and earned them recognition as the National Library Board's Creative Residents in 2022.

In 2012, Daniela co-founded the fashion collective MASH-UP with Shaf Amis’aabudin and Nathanael Ng. The collective was awarded a seed grant and was part of the business incubator project Parco Next Next. The label participated in fashion shows in Singapore and Bangkok, and found commercial success regionally.

Daniela's academic contributions extend to publishing and presenting at prominent conferences such as Cumulus. Her work has been featured in publications like Bloomsbury Fashion Photography Archive and Critical Mass. She is a sought-after voice in contemporary fashion, frequently sought by fashion journalists for her insightful perspectives.

As a fashion design and theory lecturer at the bachelor's level, Daniela possesses a strong combination of industry knowledge, communication skills, creativity, research abilities and a collaborative mindset to effectively educate and inspire aspiring fashion professionals.

Published writing

‘the f/old in fashion practice’ in artmaking as embodied enquiry, Batson, G. & Sentler, S. (eds). Intellect Books. https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389685_10 (2025)
‘Review of: Fashion & Motherhood: Image, Material, Identity, Laura Snelgrove (ed.) (2024)’ in International Journal of Fashion Studies, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp. 145–147. https://doi.org/10.1386/infs_00127_5 (2025)
‘The Threshold of Language: Design and Soma’ in Cumulus Roma (2021)
‘Sustainable Design as Anti-Fashion’ in Cumulus Bogotá (2019)
‘The Aesthetics of Use ’in Bloomsbury Fashion Photography Archive (2017)

Fashion curation and research

The Salesgirl who Became Boss (2023) commissioned by DECK for Pictures in the Mind shown as part of Singapore Art Week
CAPSULE 2009: Independent Fashion Design in Singapore (2022) co-curated with Josiah Chua, Fashion on Display
Home Economics with A Stubborn Bloom (2021) installation, Women in Film & Photography Exhibition, Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film
Curatorial assistant to Circe Henestrosa, curator of Appearances can be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo which exhibited in various iterations at the Palais Galliera (2022), Brooklyn Museum and deYoung Art Museum (2020), Victoria & Albert Museum (2018) and Museo Frida Kahlo (2012).
Curatorial research at White Line Projects; London (2016 – 2017)
Assistant at The Vulgar, Barbican Art Centre; London (2016)
Cataloguing and preparing material from the International Wool Secretariat Archive for digitisation under the guidance of London College of Fashion archivist Jane Holt;, London (2016)

Public lectures (select)

‘The Wonderful History of Home Economics: Changing Ideals of the Modern Singaporean Woman and Her Education in the 1970s-1980s’ Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall as part of the exhibition Modern Women in the Republic (2021)
‘Creative Residency sharing: Teenagehood in 1990s Singapore’, National Library Board (2022)

Conferences

A Collective Memory of Fashion, Front and (Off-)Centre: Fashion and Southeast Asia, The Courtauld London, online (2023)
Situating Fashion Studies in South East Asia: Practical Methods, Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education organised by American University of Paris, online (2021)
The Threshold of Language: Design and Soma, Cumulus, Rome/online (2021)
Making Replicas: Open Source Resources and the Potential for Remote Fashion Research, “The New Normal”: Sartorial and Body Practices of the Quarantine Era organised by Fashion Theory Russia, online (2020)
Re-Adoptions of the Aesthetic of Use in Contemporary Fashion, Critical Fashion Studies Conference; Melbourne, Australia (2020)
Sustainable Design as Anti-Fashion, Cumulus; Bogotá, Colombia (2019)
Decentralising Fashion Through Emojis, Instabaes and Seapunk: Fashion-ology from a Singaporean Perspective, Fashion and Media Symposium at Drexel University; Philadelphia, USA (2017)

National Library Board (Singapore) Creative Arts Residency and grant to respond to archival research for ‘Elizabeth’s Diary’ (2021–2022)
National Arts Council (Singapore) grant to develop a digital presentation for ‘Home Economics with A Stubborn Bloom’ (2020–2021)
Entrepreneurship grant for Mash-Up Collective from SPRING Singapore (2011–2013)

Academic leadership and faculty

Programme Leaders

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Alan P Rudge

Andreas Schlegel

Audrey Wong

Dayal Gian Singh

Dr Diego Celi

Dr Ronald P.M.H. Lay, MA, AThS-HF, AThR, ATR-BC

Dr Emilio Molina

Erzan Adam

Dr Francis Maravillas

Ginette Chittick

Hazel Lim-Schlegel

Dr Ian Woo

Dr Indra Selvarajah

Jay Loo Dexian

Jaygo Bloom

Jeffrey Say

Joselyn Sim

Justin Hegburg

Kathryn Shannon Sim

Khalid Almkhlaafy

Matt Grey

Michael Budmani

Dr Natalia Grincheva

Nathan Yong

Dr Rosslyn Prosser

Dr Subashini K Rajanthran

Victoria Elizabeth Ho

Wendy Chua

Associate Professor Woo Yen Yen

Senior Lecturers

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Adeline Kueh

Brian O’Reilly

Dr Darren Moore

Dirk Johan Stromberg

Hideho Urata

Jeremy Sharma

Kelley Cheng

Dr S Chandrasekaran

Salleh Japar

Urich Lau Wai-Yuen

Lecturers

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Aloysius Foong

Alvin Chiam

Ang Qing Sheng

Dr Aprille Chua Jia Qi

Chen Chin Tyng

Chris Yee

Christina Low Yung Chyuan

Dr Damaris D E Carlisle

Daniela Monasterios Tan

David Lee Siew Bing

Edmund Chia

Emylia Safian

Eta Lauw

Eugene Lee

Fanny Bratahalim

Dr Gan Sheuo Hui

Goh Hiro Toshi

Hera

Hillary Yeo

Janet Teoh

Jason Vitorillo

Jessica Olivia Chua

Dr Joel Gn

Dr Leela Alaniz

Lidya Chrisfens

Lim Shu Min

Lim Teng Hong

Dr Mardhiah Osman

Michael Charles Daniel Rezandi

Michelle Loh

Muhammad Fairul Azreen Bin Mohd Zahid

Nadia Oh Sueh Peng

Nicholas Ooi Wei Siong

Dr Nicholas Teo