Lauren Bilodeau (Design and Publications Manager) earned a B.S. in Art History and Museum Professions, with a Minor in Fashion Studies from FIT. She has interned at various institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, David LaChappelle Studio, Sleep No More, and in the Graduate study collection at FIT. She always carries her phone, wallet, make up, chapstick, keys, tissues, and bobby pins in her purse.
Raissa Bretaña (Lead Researcher, Registrar and Educational Programming) received a B.F.A. in Costume Design from Boston University and has worked professionally in theatre, opera, film, and television. She has held internships in the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Textile and Fashion Arts Department at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Costume Research Division at Western Costume Company. She can also be found educating visitors about the women’s suffrage movement at the New York Historical Society. Her qualifying paper will examine the fashions of America’s suffragists in the early twentieth century. Her purse is never without her signature red lipstick…and a compact mirror, of course!
Caela Castillo (Media Manager) received an M.A. in Modern European History with a minor in Public History from Loyola University Chicago and a B.A. in History with a minor in French and English from California State University, Fullerton. She has contributed to exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California and Loyola University Museum of Art. She has also interned at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. Her research interests include cultural and fashion history of Paris during the late nineteenth century and the 1920s. She always has hair ties and a chapstick for both her purse and jacket pockets!
Katharine Dorny (Project Manager and Registrar) earned a B.S. in Fashion Business Management from FIT. She has interned at the Special Collections and College Archives in FIT’s Gladys Marcus Library. Her qualifying paper is focused on Mountain Artisans, a cooperative in the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1960s that supported women in poverty by manufacturing and selling high-end fashion items using traditional patchwork quilting skills. She always makes sure her bag contains her weekly planner, a water bottle, and a snack.
Kaelyn Garcia (Content Advisor) received a B.F.A. in Fashion Design and History from Columbia College. She has worked as a designer and textile instructor specializing in weaving, embroidery, and bobbin lace in New York for over eight years, and is co-founder of the Brooklyn Lace Guild. She interned at the Hispanic Society and the American Museum of Natural History, the Cooper Hewitt, and most recently at the Textile Laboratory at Saint John the Divine. She has her moleskin planner, chapstick, and sunglasses in her bag at all times.
Bethany Gingrich (Writer) earned a B.F.A. in Crafts-Textiles from Virginia Commonwealth University. She worked as a museum technician in the costume collection at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia. She has interned for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, FIT Special Collections and College Archives, and The Museum at FIT. Her qualifying paper will explore Erté as a fashion journalist for Harper’s Bazaar. Of course, she always keeps a book close at hand in her purse!
Zoey A. Hasselbring (Co-exhibition Designer and Display Advisor) earned a B.A. in Global Liberal Studies at NYU.She interned at the Hispanic Society of America and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Her research interests include women’s fashion of the 1920s and 30s. She is finishing the program with an emphasis in conservation. She always carries a notebook, pencil, and lip balm in her bag.
Darnell Lisby (Diversity Advisor) received an A.A.S in Fashion Merchandising Management and a B.S. in Art History and Museum Professions from FIT. He was a research intern for the curatorial department of the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a curatorial intern for the accessories department of MFIT, and an intern for special collections at Gladys Marcus Library at FIT. For his qualifying paper, he is currently researching how Beyoncé’s onstage costumes and fashions delineate the messages in her music. He always carries an extra pair of headphones in his bag.
Meredith Menache (Co-exhibition Designer and Display Advisor) earned a B.A. in Art History from NYU. She interned in the conservation departments at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and at MFIT where she is currently an intern. Her research interests include WWII and the polynesian bark cloth, Tapa. For her qualifying paper, she is doing a treatment on a World War II parachute silk dress. She always carries chapstick in her pocket or purse.
Carson Poplin (Research Manager and Educational Programming) received a B.A. in Art History from Furman University. She has completed internships at the Coach, Inc., corporate archive and at FIDM Museum & Galleries in Los Angeles. She is currently working at The Museum at FIT. She always has chapstick in her pocket and a playlist full of Beyonce in her bag.
Marissa Stevenson (Conservation Advisor) received a B.A. in Art History from the University of Toledo. She has interned in conservation departments at the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and the Toledo Museum of Art, as well as assisting in the move of the Tory Burch Archive. She is currently a conservation intern at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her research has primarily focused on Parisian couturier Jacques Doucet and early 20th century garments and embellishments. She always has a hair tie in her pocket.
Virginia Theerman (Writer and Copy Editor) earned a dual B.S. degree in Art History and Design & Merchandising at Drexel University. She spent four years as a Curatorial Assistant at the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection. She then spent a year and a half as a Collections Management Assistant at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, moving art between onsite and offsite storage. Most recently, she has worked as an Exhibition Dressing Assistant on the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Items: Is Fashion Modern? She never leaves home without a vintage cotton handkerchief and Burt’s Bees peppermint lip balm in her pocket.