October 19, 2022 | Lecture 2 | Dr. Michelle Tolini Finamore, Fashion & Design Curator

Michelle Tolini Finamore, PhD is a Fashion and Design Curator and Historian. She was the Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for 8 years where she curated exhibitions including the groundbreaking Gender Bending Fashion, #techstyle, Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen, and Think Pink. She has written numerous books and articles for both scholarly and popular press such as Hollywood Before Glamour (Palgrave, 2013) and Gaetano Savini: The Man Who Was Brioni (Assouline, 2015).

In this presentation, Michelle Tolini Finamore will give an overview of over two hundred years of fashion and accessories featured in the first Crystal Bridges’ exhibition dedicated to fashion and the first to present American fashion as a powerful emblem of global visual culture amplified by movies, television, red carpets, and social media. From dresses worn by First Ladies to art-inspired garments to iconic fashion moments that defined a generation, Fashioning America conveys uniquely American expressions of innovation, highlights the compelling stories of both designers and wearers that center on opportunity and self-invention, and amplifies the voices of those who are often left out of dominant fashion narratives.