Food Culture through the Lens of Fashion

Join The Museum at FIT’s curator of education and research, Melissa Marra-Alvarez, and associate curator of costume, Elizabeth Way, in conversation with food studies scholar Fabio Parasecoli about their most recent book, Food & Fashion. 

The piece examines the ways that food culture has expressed itself in fashion over the last 250 years and how these connect to broader socio-cultural change, and cultural movements across centuries.

A book signing will follow the conversation. This event is organized in collaboration with the Museum of Food and Drink in preparation for the MFIT exhibition, Food & Fashion, opening in fall 2023.

About:

Melissa Marra-Alvarez is Curator of Education and Research at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT), New York. She is co-curator of the Food and Fashion exhibition and co-editor of the Food and Fashion book (Bloomsbury 2022). Her previous exhibitions include Head to Toe (2021), Minimalism/Maximalism (2019), and Force of Nature (2017). Marra-Alvarez’s research interests include intersections between fashion and the natural world, the relationship between fashion and popular culture, and fashion as visual culture. She holds an MA in Museum Studies: Fashion and Textile History from The Fashion Institute of Technology.

Fabio Parasecoli is a Professor of Food Studies in the Nutrition and Food Studies Department at New York University. His research explores the cultural politics of food, particularly in media, design, and cultural heritage. Recent books include Feasting Our Eyes: Food, Film, and Cultural Citizenship in the US (2016, co-authored with Laura Lindenfeld), Knowing Where It Comes From: Labeling Traditional Foods to Compete in a Global Market (2017), Food (2019) and Global Brooklyn: Designing Food Experiences in World Cities (2021, coedited with Mateusz Halawa), and Gastronativsm: Food, Identity, Politics (2022).

Elizabeth Way is Associate Curator of Costume at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is co-curator of the Food and Fashion exhibition and co-editor of the Food and Fashion book (Bloomsbury 2022). Her past exhibitions include Black Fashion Designers (2016), Fabric In Fashion (2018), and Head to Toe (2021). Way’s personal research focuses on the intersection of African American culture and fashion. She edited Black Designers in American Fashion (Bloomsbury 2021). She holds an MA in Costume Studies (New York University) and a BS in Apparel Design and BA in History (University of Delaware).

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