Dr. Ben Barry is a transformative fashion educator, scholar-maker and academic leader dedicated to inclusion, social justice and systemic change in the fashion industry. His journey began at age 14 in Ottawa, where he founded a modeling agency in an effort to help his friend who was told that she was “too big” to be a model and, ultimately, to challenge the exclusion of diverse bodies in fashion. The Ben Barry Agency became the world’s first to represent models of all ages, sizes and backgrounds—long before diversity was a mainstream conversation in fashion. This work garnered Ben interviews on Oprah and Fashion Television and earned him the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case for advancing gender equality in Canada. While running his agency, Ben pursued an undergraduate degree in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, followed by a Master’s in Innovation, Strategy, and Organization and a PhD in Management from Cambridge University. His PhD thesis demonstrated how using models who reflect consumers’ sizes, ages and races in fashion advertising positively influence their body confidence and, subsequently, purchase decisions. His industry-shaping findings were featured in The Cut, Le Monde, Elle Canada and Business of Fashion, among other international outlets.
In 2012, Ben joined Toronto Metropolitan University as an Assistant Professor of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Fashion, and he was tenured and promoted in 2015. He developed courses exploring the intersections of fashion with queer and trans identities, aging, fat and disabled bodies, Black feminist thought and Indigenous worldviews. Ben was appointed Chair of Fashion at the university in 2018, where he led the development of a new school vision rooted in inclusion, decolonization and sustainability. Under his leadership, the school realigned its core curriculum, introduced 12 new elective courses including Fashioning He/She/They, Carnival Arts and Indigenous Fashion, restructured faculty job postings to address systemic barriers, and supported the creation of the Black Fashion Students Association, Asian Fashion Students Association and the Beading Circle.
In 2021, Ben was appointed Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Collaborating with the Parsons community, Ben has been spearheading the transformation of the school’s fashion curriculum and culture. He introduced a renewed school vision and strategic direction that positions access, equity and justice as foundational to fashion education. This vision led to the redevelopment of core curriculum to embed size inclusion and body diversity, as well as the creation of new courses including Fat Fashion, Multi-Sensory Design, and three courses on Indigenous Fashion. As Dean, Ben launched full-time faculty cluster searches in fashion design and social justice, fashion management and social justice and Indigenous fashion knowledges and practices. These searches significantly increased diversity among the full-time fashion faculty; over 55% of full-time fashion faculty now self-identify as Native American, Black, South Asian, East Asian and Latinx, in addition to other underrepresented groups in fashion education including disabled and fat. In collaboration with Sinéad Burke and Tilting the Lens, Ben launched the Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program, which welcomed its first cohort in Fall 2024. This initiative creates access for disabled fashion students through recruitment, scholarship funding and mentorship, paving the way for greater inclusion in fashion education and the fashion industry. In recognition of his contributions to the fashion industry, Ben was named to the inaugural Vogue Business “100 Innovators” list.
As a researcher, Ben centers the intersectional fashion experiences of disabled, fat, trans and queer individuals and he develops community-led fashion workshops, shows and exhibitions to share this work with the public. He has secured research funding from agencies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Ford Foundation. His recent projects have explored the everyday fashion experiences and innovations of disabled men and masculine people, culminating in a fashion show and exhibition at Tangled Art + Disability, and a U.S. study on the experiences of disabled students in fashion education. Currently, Ben leads the Pathways for Disabled Designers in collaboration with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). This project explores perceptions and experiences of disability in the U.S. fashion industry, and develops programs to support disabled fashion employees and foster a workplace culture that values disability.