Dr. Rashmita Bardalai
Details
College: School of Fashion & Textiles
Department: Fashion & Textiles
Campus: Brunswick Australia
rashmita.bardalai@rmit.edu.au
ORCID: 0000-0001-6097-3689
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Collaborative projects
- Industry Projects
- Media enquiries
About
Dr Rashmita Bardalai is a Lecturer and Joint Program Manager for the Bachelor of Fashion Enterprise at the School of Fashion and Textiles, RMIT University. With over 15 years of experience as a textile designer, product developer and client manager across Australia, India and China, she brings a culturally grounded, industry-led and practice-focused perspective to both her teaching and research.
Rashmita works closely with industry partners to bring real-world briefs into the classroom through Work Integrated Learning, equipping students with work-ready skills and digital abilities from 3D simulation and augmented reality to AI-driven design tools enabling them to navigate and shape the evolving fashion landscape. She has organised and led Global Experience study tours to Indonesia and India in partnership with leading fashion institutions.
Her research sits at the intersection of material innovation and sensory-emotional design, exploring how conscious material choices, sensory attributes and product attachment inform design for wellbeing. Her work in sensory material characterisation leads her towards the potential of AI in material haptics, where digital and physical touchpoints converge to create meaningful, embodied product experiences. She is also interested in the design intelligence embedded in traditional craft and its potential to inform regenerative design ecologies. Her research translates into applications across health and sustainability and digital fashion e-commerce, positioning her at the forefront of industry-connected material research. Bridging product development, research and pedagogy, Rashmita is a dynamic contributor to the future of fashion and design education.
Awards:
2025: The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, RMIT University https://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/our-rmit/awards/2025-awards-for-excellence
2025: Tripple E SDG Impact Award - 4th Place https://2025.triple-e-awards.com/finalist/id/1097
2023: Doctoral Researcher Award, IFFTI, For the research paper ‘Designing for Sustainable Emotional Experiences: Understanding key variables in attributing emotions to tactile material sensations through the MaTE Toolkit’ In Proceedings of the 25th IFFTI Annual Conference (Vol. 2). https://site.iffti.org/proceedings-iffti-2023/
Research fields
- 330315 Textile and fashion design
- 520406 Sensory processes, perception and performance
- 401413 Textile technology
- 330316 Visual communication design (incl. graphic design)
- 3303 Design
UN sustainable development goals
- 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
- 3 Good Health and Well Being
- 13 Climate Action
Academic positions
- Lecturer
- RMIT University
- School of Fashion & Textiles
- Melbourne, Australia
- 25 Oct 2019 – Present
Non-academic positions
- Asst Program Manager
- RMIT University
- Bachelor of Fashion (Enterprise)
- Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Jan 2024 – Present
Supervisor projects
- Eco-logic: Design Intelligence in Traditional Craft Systems -A Transdisciplinary Study for Regenerative Design Ecologies.
- 19 Jun 2026
- The Use Of Fashion As An Intervention For Social Anxiety
- 16 Mar 2026
Teaching interests
Rashmita has taught across all three years of the Bachelor of Fashion Enterprise at RMIT University, with a focus on digital innovation, industry-connected learning and global experience. Her teaching embeds emerging technologies including 3D simulation, augmented reality and AI through a scaffolded digital curriculum that builds student capability progressively from foundational to capstone level. She works with industry partners such as Hugo Boss, Le Specs, MCM Worldwide and Okkular to deliver real-world Work Integrated Learning projects. She has organised and led transformative study experiences through the Global Experience study tours to Indonesia and India.
Research interests
· Sensory and emotional responses to material touch and texture
· Textile material categorisation through sensorial-emotional frameworks
· AI-driven material classification and haptics
· Fashion as an intervention for wellbeing, social anxiety and emotional resilience
· Regenerative design informed by conscious material selection and traditional craft intelligence
