Melissa Leventon

Melissa Leventon, a founding partner of Curatrix Group museum consultants and appraisers, is a specialist in European and American costume and textiles. Formerly, she was Curator-in-Charge of Textiles at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and in addition, she has curated exhibitions involving many different art media ranging from contemporary glass to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Her recent local exhibitions include Somethin's Happening Here: Bay Area Rock 'n' Roll 1963-1973 at the Museum of Performance & Design and Artwear: Fashion and Anti-fashion at the Legion of Honor. She has authored or contributed to many exhibition catalogues and journals; the encyclopedic What People Wore When (2008) is her most recent book.

At CCA, Melissa teaches fashion history and fashion theory and enjoys sharing her extensive collection of shoes with her students. Outside the College she lectures frequently on costume and collecting and consults for individuals and museums across the country. Currently, she is also a consultant to The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok, a new museum being organized around the Thai royal textile collections.