Talk with a Curator: Women Who Have Revolutionized Fashion

Join Petra Slinkard as she walks you through overlooked contributions to women's fashion history.

Join Petra Slinkard Director of Curatorial Affairs and the Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles as she walks you through the Peabody Essex Museum’s latest exhibition Made It: The Women Who Revolutionized Fashion. The exhibit highlights more than 100 works, spanning 250 years, recognizing women's often-overlooked contributions to the fashion and design industry. From Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley to Elsa Schiaparelli and Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, to experimental labels like Chromat, women designers have transcended genres and revolutionized ideas of identity.

Petra Slinkard oversees the Peabody Essex Museum’s fashion and textile collection as well as the newly opened Fashion and Design gallery In 2020, she curated Made It: The Women who Revolutionized Fashion which is organized in association with the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. In her role as Director of Curatorial Affairs, Slinkard manages PEM’s dynamic curatorial team, develops departmental priorities for the museum and the strategies to execute them.