Valerie Steele

[1] As director and chief curator of the museum, Steele has curated more than 25 exhibitions over the past twenty years, including Gothic: Dark Glamour, Love & War: The Weaponized Woman, The Corset: Fashioning the Body, and Femme Fatale: Fashion in Fin-de-Siècle Paris.

[2] In addition Steele is the editor-in-chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (Berg Publishers), an academic journal which she founded in 1997.

She gives lectures frequently and has appeared on many television programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show.

After she appeared on the PBS special, The Way We Wear, she was described in The Washington Post as one of "fashion's brainiest women".

She has also appeared on various podcasts including Creative Conversations with Suzy Menkes, Nymphet Alumni, Dressed: The History of Fashion, and The Museum at FIT Fashion Culture Podcast.