Fashion is the opposite of frivolous. Clothing and textiles reflect the lifestyles, occupations, economics, class distinctions, religious beliefs and even politics of societies in every era and place throughout history. Silhouettes teach us about gender roles, embellishments about labor divisions and textiles about technology. The stories of cult designers like Coco Chanel and Yves St. Laurent become more legendary with each new generation adjusting their personal style to the times, while curiosity about unsung seamstresses who toiled durning wartime or tailors who served royal families drive fiction and non-fiction sub-genres. In the museum setting, fashion and design play crucial roles as lenses through which to study history, threads on which to pull in order to reveal unique insights into the fabric of a particular culture and time.

Petra Slinkard, Director of Curatorial Affairs and the Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA has devoted her career to educating the public about the role fashion and design play in the human experience and the way that experience is recorded for posterity. Through extensive cross-cultural research and partnerships with global leaders in the field, Slinkard has established herself as an expert-to-watch and helped make PEM’s innovative and inclusive fashion initiative into one of the best in the country. With storytelling as her magic power, she brings the past into the present in ways which capture hard-to-reach contemporary audiences. She is one of the women putting the Boston area on the map as a global cultural hub, and for all those reasons, she is the latest in Misstropolis’ Visionary Series.

Fashion and Design gallery, Peabody Essex Museum. Image courtesy of Petra Slinkard.

Born in the Netherlands, Slinkard moved to Indiana at an early age with her Dutch mom and American dad. At Indiana University, Bloomington, where she earned a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising, a B.A. in Art History with a concentration in Modern and Contemporary Art, and an M.S. in Fashion/Textile History, Slinkard discovered her passion for the stories behind works of art. She spent time with the historic Elizabeth Sage Costume Collection and designed original costumes for stage productions. In 2017 she was recognized as one of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences “20 under 40” most distinguished alumni. She went on to work at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and then as curator of costume at the Chicago History Museum before joining the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in 2018.

As Director of Curatorial Affairs, she provides strategic and operational support for, and helps identify areas of integration between, the museum’s exhibition, research and curatorial teams. As the Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles, Slinkard oversees exhibitions and programming for PEM’s Fashion and Design gallery and oversees the museum’s vast collection of fashion and textiles.

You may remember Slinkard’s celebrated exhibitions Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love from 2022, and Made It: The Women who Revolutionized Fashion. which ran from November 2020 through March 2021.

Made It: The Women Who Revolutionized Fashion, which featured over 250 years of fashion history through the work of groundbreaking female fashion designers was especially important to Misstropolis in cementing Slinkard’s visionary status. The exhibit was organized in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and showcased over 100 pieces, spanning 250-year-old artifacts to contemporary, even futuristic designs. The exhibition catalog was published as the coffee table book Women Who Revolutionized Fashion: 250 Years of Design, edited by Slinkard, Madelief Hohé, Curator of Fashion and Costumes at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, Paula Richter, Curator and Lan Morgan, Associate Curator at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Take a minute to think of all the subtle codes embedded in the way people dress: are the clothes simple, extravagant, new or vintage? What about cut, label, pairing, polish or the political symbology regarding say, the color of a baseball hat? These signs get read in a contemporary context, producing meaning related to cultural identity, status, belonging and values. Teasing out such meaning from historical collections takes incredible research and academic collaboration. Slinkard’s work focuses on fashion’s role in everything from “defining cultural moments and advancing political causes, to deeply impacting the global economy and ecology..”

The Venezuelan-America fashion designer Carolina Herrera wrote, “I don’t get inspiration from books or a painting. I get it from the women I meet.” Petra Slinkard has inspired me for years with her steadfast dedication to this specific area of art history and museum work. I caught up with the dynamic, generous and much sought-after visionary over zoom and email.

Fashion and Design Gallery, introduction. Photo courtesy Petra Slinkard.

Misstropolis (MT): What can you share about any research you are currently working on or are excited to begin? In your intense, cross-departmental role, are you able to conduct as much research as you would like?

“I love researching within our collection best because each object offers the team and me a chance to learn something about our community and the museum, the region or our nation’s history. You never know what mysteries you might unearth.”

— Petra Slinkard

Petra Slinkard (PS): I feel like I’m always researching, but admittedly, as you note, not as much as I would like. However, we have a few exciting projects coming up. One is on the fashion designer, Andrew Gn. We are hosting his retrospective exhibition, which opens at PEM in Sept.

Then later in early 2026 we are doing a major rotation in our Fashion and Design gallery drawn from PEM’s collection with an eye to the last 400 years of Salem’s development.

Petra Slinkard and designer Andrew Gn in coversation, Mandarin Hotel, 2023.

MT: It feels like a coup to get the North American debut of the Andrew Gn exhibit. He’s such a global phenom, having dressed everyone from Lady Gaga to the Princess of Wales. How did this come to be and what can PEM audiences expect from the exhibition?

PS: I met Andrew in Chicago when I worked at the Chicago History Museum. Later in 2023, the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore mounted their exhibition, Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World. I was invited to write for the exhibition catalog on Andrew’s impact in the U.S. as well as do a program at ACM. From there, ACM and PEM, along with Andrew, began talking about what it would take to bring the exhibition to the U.S.

Andrew then donated PEM over 80 ensembles which will make up our exhibitions. We are also tweaking some content to help familiarize people with Singapore’s history. Furthermore, Andrew is very much a collector of Asia Export Art as well as other forms of decorative arts, from which he derived much of his creative inspiration. Given that PEM’s collection houses many of these same works, it felt like a wonderful opportunity to make the visual and cultural connections.

Beaded, coral-inspired designs by Andrew Gn. Image courtesty Petra Slinkard.

MT: What more can you tell us about the rotation in the Fashion and Design gallery? What inspired the timing and the theme?

PS: We rotate the collection in the Fashion and Design gallery regularly. For 2026, we are focusing on works from our own collection that have something specifically to do with Salem’s history. A Who, What, Why, When and Where approach if you will. In 2026, Salem is celebrating 400 + years of history in a community-wide commemoration. This felt like a great opportunity to honor the people of Salem and Essex County through our distinct clothing and accessories collection.

Fashion and Design Gallery, Peabody Essex Museum. Image courtesy Petra Slinkard.

MT: Given the nature of PEM's collection, its history and its focus, how big a part of your role is establishing the importance of historical objects, lifestyles, practices, traditions, beliefs, etc to our current moment?

PS: What a great question! Connecting the past to our present is at the core of what we do. As the oldest continually operating and collecting museum in the country, we firmly believe that all works of art were at one point in time contemporary and that our role is to establish connections that stimulate new thinking. Specifically, PEM’s approach emphasizes the interconnections among global artistic and cultural traditions, encouraging visitors to explore these rich relationships in depth and to engage in personal reflection. My role is to encourage centering this philosophy in all of our work.

“PEM’s mission is to offer thought-provoking experiences of the arts, humanities, and sciences which activate an understanding of our shared humanity and empower imagination and learning through experimentation.”

— Petra Slinkard

MT: As you have evolved in your role and deepened your understanding of and appreciation for PEM's collection, how has this responsibility (as articulated above) evolved?

PS: As I’ve gotten to know PEM’s collection as a whole better, I take this responsibility seriously in the way I work with the curatorial team and our teams at large. I think in the round so I am always (sometimes to a fault!) suggesting different ways for curators to think of connecting the collections together and encouraging them to do the same with one another.

MT: How do you bring history and historical works into contemporary fashion and textile exhibitions?

PS: The museum’s mission is to create lasting, positive impacts on its audiences, ensuring that art remains accessible, compelling, and relevant to all. PEM’s collection of fashion and textiles represents an incredible geographic range and centuries of artistry. From the everyday to the exceptional, this collection intersects with every collecting department in the museum, including our Library. I find this an incredibly inspiring aspect of the collection because it is all connected. For instance in our upcoming exhibition featuring Andrew Gn, yes, it is an exhibition celebrating his 28+ years of artistic excellence, but it is also a celebration of Singapore’s 60 years of independence as a nation, and furthermore a comparison of one modern port city to that of Salem’s history as a major international port city.

MT: We live in a time of great technological, ecological and political disruption. How do fashion and art respond, and how do you bring that to bear on your exhibitions and programming?

PS: We live in a fast-paced world and we at the museum try to be receptive and reactive to that pace in information, values, ideals, scholarship, etc. Artists as well as our audience are really the ones leading the conversation around these topics. We are the conduit.

MT: How does the natural world—specifically the sea and the harsh New England climate—influence the museum's curatorial and pedagogical direction?

PS: PEM is deeply committed to sustainability and perennially to the study of the natural environment. I believe it is a core value and one that the curatorial team frequently thinks about when making exhibitions.

We have two spaces dedicated to this topic, The Pod, featuring our natural history collection as well as the Art and Nature Center, a multi-generational space where the topics of art and nature merge in interesting and engaging exhibitions. From there, visitors see nature come up all over the museum, in our maritime collection and gallery, in fashion and design, in our library collection and even in special exhibitions like Our Time on Earth or The Great Animal Orchestra.

MT: What kinds of professional development, travel and networking do you do in order to keep PEM’s curatorial vision adapting and evolving to current realities?

PS: I travel quite a bit for fashion and textiles, but not as much as I’d like in regard to my role as the Director of the dept. Attending conferences and community engagements are ways I remain connected and informed. I also take advantage of trainings and virtual presentations to help stay on top of advancements in our field. Finally, when possible, the team and I organize “field trips” to other institutions, or we host peers at PEM. This opportunity to exchange ideas and participate in sharing and conversation can be quite stimulating and illuminating.

MT: Any funny travel stories?

PS: When I was just starting out as a young curator, I was invited to deliver a talk for a conference at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. It was a lovely conference filled with great people from all over the Midwest. During our stay, we were invited to watch a performance and then tour their costume shop. A giant wave of deja vu came over me and I was like, wait! I’ve been here before. After a little more time it dawned on me that I had not actually been there personally, but I was recalling the famous scene in the movie Sleeping with the Enemy where Julia Robert’s character and the drama teacher try on costumes. I love that memory so much!

Fashion and Design Gallery, featuring Yolanda Cellucci collection, Peabody Essex Museum. Image courtesy Petra Slinkard.

MT: How do fashion and art operate in the creation of national identities and does this factor in your research and/or curatorial vision?

PS: Identity is key to the practice of design, dress and adornment and it is for me personally the primary driving force in my work as a curator. Fashion and art are nonverbal modes of communication. They are beautiful and complex.

Finally, when I asked Slinkard how she is able to chart paths through the collection and not get overwhelmed by its magnitude and scope, she answered, “Slowly, and steadily. This work is definitely akin to many marathons in a row..”

“Culture is necessary for human beings to evolve into better creatures,” declared Viviane Westwood, one of the iconic designers featured in Women Who Revolutionized Fashion. Petra Slinkard’s vision for how fashion, design and history is exhibited at the Peabody Essex Museum follows the legacy of courage, creativity and collaboration modeled by the female designers she’s studied. Her devotion is something we should all embrace—it helps us evolve into better creatures.

Opportunities to hear Petra Slinkard speak at upcoming events:

Webinar with the Costume Society of America:

Petra Slinkard will be in conversation with three authors on the subject of “Reframing Fashion in the Museum.” She will be joined by Sarah Scaturro, the Eric and Jane Nord Chief Conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Dyese Matthews, Assistant Professor of Fashion Management and Social Justice at Parsons School of Design, and Kenna Libes, PhD candidate, Bard Graduate Center. Topics will include collaboration and public engagement, ethics in conservation, and aesthetics and body representation. Together, they will also explore shared themes from their work, shedding light on the transformative shift in how fashion and textiles are presented, and interpreted in museums today.
Click here to register.:

A Collection of Collections: Navigating design and creative expression at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Some of the earliest works collected by the Peabody Essex are examples of personal adornment. Join Petra Slinkard in a conversation on how PEM's groundbreaking traditions harmonize into the creative, public-facing, community-focused institution it is today.
Click here to register.

PEM fashion collection storage tour

Join Petra Slinkard and Angela Segalla, Director of the Hawkes Collection Center for a private tour of our new fashion storage. View recent acquisitions as well as artworks that have been in deep storage for years!

06 Newburyport Turnpike, Rowley
Please email Emily Schuman at emily_schuman@pem.org to register

Fashion in the Season of Revolution: A Panel Discussion and Reenactor Promenade

As a part of the Essex County Rev250 and Leslie’s Retreat 250 celebrations, PEM invites you to step back in time with “Fashion in the Season of Revolution,” a dynamic exploration of the intersection of style, society and conflict in the late 1700s. This engaging program, presented in cooperation with Leslie’s Retreat 250, offers a blend of scholarship, storytelling and immersive experience, combining a thought-provoking panel discussion with a vibrant Revolutionary reenactor promenade.
Click here for information and program.

Cover photo: Petra Slinkard photographed by Bob Packert.