Valerie Fahnestock Steele is an American fashion historian, curator, and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She was appointed director of the museum in 2003.As curator of the museum, Steele has curated more than 20 exhibitions in the past ten years, including Gothic: Dark Glamour; Love & War: The Weaponized Woman; The Corset: Fashioning the Body; and Femme Fatale: Fashion in Fin-de-Siècle Paris
