Valerie Steele
Director & Chief Curator, Museum at the Fashion Insititute of Technology
The prolific author and curator has raised cultural awareness of fashion through her books and prominent exhibitions.
Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where she has personally organised over 20 exhibitions since 1997, including The Corset: Fashioning the Body, London Fashion, Gothic: Dark Glamour, Shoe Obsession, Daphne Guinness, A Queer History of Fashion, and Dance and Fashion. In 2019, Steele curated the “Paris, Capital of Fashion” exhibition, examining the long running history of fashion’s most notorious capital. sShe is also founder and editor in chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, the first peer-reviewed, scholarly journal in Fashion Studies. Steele also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia, N.Y.U, Parsons and Cornell for over a decade.
A leading fashion academic, she holds a PhD from Yale and is the author or co-author of over a dozen books, including Fashion and Eroticism, Paris Fashion, Women of Fashion, Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power, The Corset: A Cultural History, Gothic: Dark Glamour and Japan Fashion Now.
As an author, editor and curator, Steele has been influential in raising public awareness of the cultural and social significance of fashion. For her work in the industry, she has been included in the New York Daily News’ “Fashion’s 50 Most Powerful” list in 2014.
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How Much Do We Really Reveal When We Get Dressed?
A new exhibition – with contributions from Chanel, McQueen and Galliano – places 100 looks under the psychoanalytic lens, and suggests that what we wear is the result of a battle in the psyche.
How Much Do We Really Reveal When We Get Dressed?
A new exhibition – with contributions from Chanel, McQueen and Galliano – places 100 looks under the psychoanalytic lens, and suggests that what we wear is the result of a battle in the psyche.
How Valentino Embraced Diversity
Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli has reimagined the storied Roman fashion house as an extraordinary hybrid of extravagance and inclusivity, casting black models like Sudanese refugee Adut Akech to bring a modern edge to his couture and send a message to the world.
How Valentino Embraced Diversity
Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli has reimagined the storied Roman fashion house as an extraordinary hybrid of extravagance and inclusivity, casting black models like Sudanese refugee Adut Akech to bring a modern edge to his couture and send a message to the world.
Op-Ed | Whatever: How Fashion Lost Its Meaning
Fashion has entered a state of pure postmodernism where anything goes and nothing means anything anymore, argues Eugene Rabkin.
Op-Ed | Whatever: How Fashion Lost Its Meaning
Fashion has entered a state of pure postmodernism where anything goes and nothing means anything anymore, argues Eugene Rabkin.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Pioneer of the 'Female Gaze'
The American photographer helped forge the way for female photographers, who are often overlooked in favour of the distinctively male giants of photography like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Pioneer of the 'Female Gaze'
The American photographer helped forge the way for female photographers, who are often overlooked in favour of the distinctively male giants of photography like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
From Versace to Helmut Lang, the Rise of Re-Issues
A growing number of labels are betting archival re-issues, along with more ephemeral collections, will help them deliver a winning mix of consistency and newness, with benefits to brand storytelling and the bottom line.
From Versace to Helmut Lang, the Rise of Re-Issues
A growing number of labels are betting archival re-issues, along with more ephemeral collections, will help them deliver a winning mix of consistency and newness, with benefits to brand storytelling and the bottom line.
Announcing The RealReal, Kurt Geiger, Pink Dog
Check out this week’s new partners and openings on BoF Careers, the global marketplace for fashion talent.
Announcing The RealReal, Kurt Geiger, Pink Dog
Check out this week’s new partners and openings on BoF Careers, the global marketplace for fashion talent.
Fashion's Dalliance With Dance
Driven by a combination of personal passion, natural affinity and internet-friendly brand storytelling strategies, fashion designers are falling in love with dance like never before.
Fashion's Dalliance With Dance
Driven by a combination of personal passion, natural affinity and internet-friendly brand storytelling strategies, fashion designers are falling in love with dance like never before.
In Japan, Tapping the World’s Best Vintage
Japan’s vintage market has been slow to digitise and open up to international buyers, but change is afoot.
In Japan, Tapping the World’s Best Vintage
Japan’s vintage market has been slow to digitise and open up to international buyers, but change is afoot.
Announcing Gainsbury & Whiting, Bird, Marangoni, ESMOD
Check out this week’s new partners and openings on BoF Careers, the global marketplace for fashion talent.
Announcing Gainsbury & Whiting, Bird, Marangoni, ESMOD
Check out this week’s new partners and openings on BoF Careers, the global marketplace for fashion talent.
Tomes of the Times: Summer Reading
Colin McDowell shares his essential summer fashion reading list, from ‘Fashion Game Changers’ to a catalogue of Karl Lagerfeld's work for Chanel.
Tomes of the Times: Summer Reading
Colin McDowell shares his essential summer fashion reading list, from ‘Fashion Game Changers’ to a catalogue of Karl Lagerfeld's work for Chanel.
What is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
