Valerie Steele: Behind the Scenes at The MusEum at the Fashion Institute of Technology
Arizona Costume Institute invites you to an engaging presentation and lecture with Valerie Steele, director, chief fashion curator and author. Discover her acclaimed exhibitions at the F.I.T Museum and hear insights from her work with iconic fashion designers, retrospective collections, and decades of curating noteworthy fashion exhibitions.
About Valerie Steele
Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, has organized more than 25 exhibitions since 1997, including The Corset: Fashioning the Body; London Fashion; Gothic: Dark Glamour; A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk; Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color; Paris, Capital of Fashion; and Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis.
She is also the author or editor of more than 30 books with global translations, including Paris Fashion, Women of Fashion, Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power, The Corset, The Berg Companion to Fashion, and Fashion Designers A-Z: The Collection of The Museum at FIT. Additionally, she is founder and editor in chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, the first scholarly journal in fashion studies.
Steele rigorous scholarship, including a Yale Ph.D., with a rare talent for engaging broad audiences. As an author, curator, editor, and public intellectual, Valerie Steele has helped shape modern fashion studies and highlight fashion’s cultural significance. 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 “fashion’s brainiest women” and as “The Freud of Fashion” by Suzy Menkes, Valerie has been listed as one of “The People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry” in the Business of Fashion 500 (2014 to the present).
Friday, February 13, 2026
5:30 pm - Hosted beverages // South Great Hall
6 pm - Valerie Steele Lecture + Q&A // Whiteman Hall
Whiteman Hall Seating: $30 for ACI Members* and $40 for Non-Members.
Livestream Seating in South Great Hall: $15 for Students with current school I.D. Reserve your seat in advance. Entrance will be provided at event check-in with I.D.
Tickets will go on sale January 8, 2026. Purchase your ticket by Friday, February 6.
This lecture is open to the Public. To guarantee a seat, tickets must be purchased in advance.
The Museum Store will feature Valerie’s latest book, Dress, Dreams, and Desire: A History of Fashion and Psychoanalysis. Valerie will be signing a limited number of copies. PhxArt Museum Members will receive a 10% discount after signing in with your primary email address. Purchase your signed or unsigned copy below.