Paris Fashion: A Cultural History Lecture with Valerie Steele

June 18, 2026

Event Details

Date: June 18, 2026
Time: 6:30 pm
–7:45 pm

Greenwich Historical Society is excited to present an engaging and enlightening series of educational lectures and presentations exploring the breadth of American history over the course of 250 years. Each month, join the Historical Society for a special presentation covering topics from experts in the fields of fashion, local and national history, archaeology, historic preservation, archives, and more.

Light bites and drinks will be available from 5:30-6:30pm in the lobby of the Vanderbilt Education Center before each presentation begins. A Q&A with the audience will follow all presentations.


Paris has an ever-present influence on the fashion industry throughout the world. Come to the Historical Society this June for a thought-provoking presentation from Valerie Steele, esteemed Director and Chief Curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Ms. Steele’s presentation, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, will explore why Paris has long been the fashion capital of the world. Even before the rise of the haute couture in the later nineteenth century, Parisians were notorious for their obsession with fashion. The reasons for the success of Paris go beyond the great designers to the strength of a unique fashion culture, blending art, luxury, and a certain concept of femininity.

Copies of Paris Fashion will be available for purchase in the museum gift store. An opportunity for book signing with Valerie will be available once the presentation concludes.

Speaker Biography

Valerie Steele

Director and Chief Curator, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has personally organized more than 25 exhibitions since 1997, including The Corset: Fashioning the Body, Gothic: Dark Glamour, A Queer History of Fashion, Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color, and Paris, Capital of Fashion. She 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 combines serious scholarship (and a Yale PhD) with a rare ability to communicate with general audiences. She is author or co-author of more than two dozen books, including Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Women of Fashion, Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power, and Fashion Designers A-Z: The Collection of The Museum at FIT. Her books have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

As author, curator, editor, and public intellectual, Valerie Steele has been instrumental in creating the modern field of fashion studies and in raising awareness of the cultural significance of fashion. She has appeared on many television programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show and Undressed: The Story of Fashion.  Described in The Washington Post as one of fashions brainiest women and by Suzy Menkes as “The Freud of Fashion,” she is listed as one of The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry in the Business of Fashion 500 (2014-present).

 

 

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