About My Career

Clothing dominates my professional and personal life. I live it. I wear it. I study it.

I am a historian of the American fashion industry. I curate costume exhibitions. I dress four, rapidly growing children. I maintain an impressive collection of garments—from my mentor’s handed-down Missoni knitwear to a PVC, leopard-print dress, a remnant of the rave years. I talk to journalists, explaining fashion theory and the history of synthetic fibers. I teach students who didn’t even know they liked fashion history until they tried it. I write about rayon rompers, women in pants, the rise of casual dress, and many other topics that fundamentally shape our lived experiences.

I came up reading my mother’s Vogue and skulking around thrift stores in Central Pennsylvania. I thought a lot about how and why we use clothes to create culture. I didn’t have the words for it at fifteen, but I knew that old stuff was cool and — for some reason I could not give voice to—sad.  There is something sad and redeeming in wearing a sweater made by someone long dead or likely so. I consider my wardrobe and professional life to be a tribute to everyone who took the time to knit a sweater or saved up their babysitting money for a pair of Guess? Jeans.