Friends Lecture: Valerie Steele
In honor of Mia’s upcoming “Paris Couture” exhibition, the Friends of the Institute are pleased to announce Valerie Steele as our speaker on Sunday, September 13. The afternoon promises an engaging experience for all attendees, especially art and fashion lovers alike.
Steele will explore the allure of Paris fashions, from the 17th century to the present day, when Paris retains its reputation as the most prestigious fashion city in the world. Even after the capital of menswear shifted to London, circa 1800, Paris remained the capital of women’s fashion. Between the image of La Parisienne and the rise of the haute couture, Paris developed a genealogy of great designers, such as Worth, Poiret, Chanel, Dior, and Saint Laurent.
Today, Paris is widely regarded as the most influential and prestigious of the Big Four fashion capitals: New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Indeed, even as Fashion Weeks crop up in dozens of cities around the world, press attention (and buyers for department stores) overwhelmingly focus on Paris, and designers from other countries compete to show their collections in the city.
Valerie Steele is a renowned American fashion historian, curator, and the director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has authored over eight influential books on fashion history and is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field.
Her book, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, explores why Paris became—and continues to be—the world’s fashion capital. Steele presents fashion as a social and cultural phenomenon rather than merely a chronological account of designers.