The Team

EVE TOWNSEND
Collection Coordinator

Eve Townsend holds an MA (2014) in Fashion from Ryerson University and a BA (Hons.) (2006) in Fine Art and Art History from the University of Saskatchewan. Her graduate research focused on the history of costume jewelry and its relation to the so-called democratization of fashion. In 2017, she co-authored a book titled Schreiner: Masters of Twentieth-Century Costume Jewelry, which was based on her MA Major Research Project. With a strong interest in material culture and object-based research, Eve looks forward to filling gaps within the FRC’s current collection and expanding it to include a survey of costume jewelry. 

JULIA BRUCCULIERI
Research Assistant

Julia Brucculieri is a recent graduate of the MA Fashion program at Ryerson University and she holds a BA in Communications and Art History from Carleton University. She focused her graduate research on female leadership and creative control within the fashion industry, but she also has a strong interest in universal design, particularly how it relates to museum exhibitions and presentations. Prior to entering the MA program, Julia worked as the Global Lifestyle Reporter for HuffPost and HuffPost Canada. She also maintains an internship in the Department of Art & Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. Julia believes in the power of clothing to tell stories and hopes to do that with the wonderful collection at the FRC.

STEVE NGUYEN
Career Boost Student

Steve Nguyen is currently a fourth-year Fashion Communication student, specializing in art direction and graphic design. As a moodboard enthusiast, he's interested in utilizing curatorial practices that cultivate and recontextualizes forms of visual exploration. Steve looks forward to working extensively on developing engaging and informative content for the FRC that brings meaningful relationships between historical dressing and contemporary fashion to a new audience. In addition to his position at the FRC, Steve is also the current editor-in-chief for StyleCircle. 

TORI HOPGOOD
Research Assistant

Tori Hopgood is a recent graduate of Ryerson's Fashion Communication program where she developed and grew her interests in photography, graphic design and typography. She is responsible for photographing over 450 objects ranging from 19th-century bodices to Eaton’s pumps with her images being posted on the online catalogue and social media. Tori helped redesign the FRC website in hopes of making the Collection more accessible to students, staff and academics around the world. She is a graphic designer at American Tall where she designs promotional material, webpages and assists with photography.

DR. ALISON MATTHEWS DAVID
Co-Director

Dr. Alison Matthews David was awarded a PhD in Art History from Stanford University. She is a historian of dress and textiles, focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth-century fashion, accessories and material culture. Her work intersects with multiple areas including medical history, criminology, and occupational health. Her creative work includes fashion curation, and she launched the journal Fashion Studies with her co-editor Dr. Ben Barry in 2018. She is currently the Graduate Program Director for Ryerson’s MA Fashion program.

DR. KIMBERLY WAHL
Co-Director

Dr. Kimberly Wahl holds a PhD in Art History from Queen’s University, where her dissertation focused on artistic dress practices in Victorian Britain. In 2013, she published her first book: Dressed as in a Painting: Women and British Aestheticism in an age of Reform (University Press of New Hampshire). Current research examines the complex intersections between academic Feminism, and the histories and theories of fashion, from the late nineteenth century to the present.

DR. INGRID E. MIDA
Responsible for the Revival of the FRC

Dr. Ingrid E. Mida holds a PhD (2019) in Art History & Visual Culture from York University and an MA (2013) in Fashion from Ryerson University. During her graduate studies, from 2012-2019, she was responsible for the revival, curation and management of the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection. Dr. Mida is the author of many scholarly essays and of two books including Reading Fashion in Art (2020) and the editor of The Journal of Dress History; she is a member of the International Council of Museums Canada, and board trustee of the Textile Museum of Canada. As a current research fellow at Ryerson University’s Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre (MLC), she explores the intersection of fashion and art in the work of female artists from the New York avant-garde.