Paris, Capital of Fashion Speakers Biographies

Miren Arzalluz is director of Palais Galliera, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris. As curator and head of collections at the Cristóbal Balenciaga Foundation, she played a key role in the conception  of the new Balenciaga Museum.

Maude Bass-Krueger is a research fellow at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She co-directs “Histoire & Modes” a monthly research seminar at the IHTP-CNRS in Paris, and is based in The Hague and Paris.

Dr. Christopher Breward is director of collection and research at the National Galleries of Scotland. He was previously the principal of Edinburgh College of Art.

Grazia d’Annunzio teaches fashion Journalism at Università degli Studi di Milano. She was formerly deputy editor of Vogue Italia and the first editor in chief of Italian Glamour. 

David Gilbert is professor of urban and historical geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. He co-edited the book Fashion’s World Cities, with Christopher Breward.

Frédéric Godart is an associate professor of management and human resources at HEC Paris. His research focuses on fashion and luxury, and he is the author of Unveiling Fashion.

Nancy L. Green, born in Chicago, is professor of history at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is author of Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work: A Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York.

Sophie Kurkdjian is a research fellow at the Institut d’Histoire du Temps Present in Paris. Her work focuses on fashion media history, fashion journalists, and mediation in the fashion industry.

Véronique Pouillard has written and co-edited several books on luxury, the fashion industry, and the internationalization of advertising firms, including her current book, From Haute Couture to Ready-to-Wear: The Transatlantic Fashion Industry in the Twentieth Century.

Nick Rees-Roberts is a professor of  media and cultural studies at the New Sorbonne University, Paris. He is author of Fashion Film: Art and Advertising in the Digital Age, as well as books on film, media, gender, and queer studies.

Dr. Agnès Rocamora is a professor in  social and cultural studies at the London College of Fashion. She is author of Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media.

Dr. Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is curator of the exhibition Paris, Capital of Fashion and editor and co-author of its accompanying book.

Sophie Theallet designs luxury clothing with universal appeal. Her work is a pastiche of femininity, ease, sensuality, and craftsmanship that has an undeniably French accent, yet exudes a freedom of spirit that transcends all borders.

Corinne Thépaut-Cabasset is a historian specializing in early modern decorative arts and fashion. A research associate at Versailles (France), she is also the newly elected chair of the International Committee for Museums Costume Committee.

Elizabeth Way is an assistant curator of costume at MFIT. She curated the recent exhibition Fabric In Fashion and was co-curator on the exhibitions Black Fashion Designers and Global Fashion Capitals.