Four unnamed workers on the Madeira-Mamoré railway in Brazil, standing outside, image from Fashion and the Devil's Railroad by fashion historian Elizabeth Kutesko Elizabeth Kutesko

Urban scene in São Paolo, woman crossing the road in a striped dress holding a child and a man in a black suit with a white shirt and tie. Elizabeth Kutesko

Woman in a colourful dress and beaded necklace looking at the camera, image from Passing to be Noticed, an interview with Christopher Smith by fashion historian Elizabeth Kutesko Elizabeth Kutesko

Woman dancing in jeans and white top at night Elizabeth Kutesko

Two fashionable Brazilian women standing in a park in Rio de Janeiro, image from Fashioning Brazil by fashion historian Elizabeth Kutesko Elizabeth Kutesko

Man standing in healed boots, holding a bag, and staring at the camera, image from interview of Thomas Harvey with fashion historian Elizabeth Kutesko Elizabeth Kutesko

Ghosts of the Present © Silvana Trevale

Fashion at the Frontier © Bloomsbury

Fashion Fragments © Elizabeth Kutesko

Fashioning Brazil © Bloomsbury

Gladys Perint Palmer © Gray M.C.A.

Canon © Jake Axler

Fashion and the Devil’s Railroad © Museu Paulista

glimpses of ________ © Elizabeth Kutesko

A Photographic Fragment of Transnational Fashion © Instituto Moreira Salles

Passing © Christopher Smith

Novel © Elizabeth Kutesko

About

I am a fashion historian, with a particular interest in Latin American bodily practices and the intersection between dress, identity, representation and power.

My research explores fashion as a transnational form of modernity, which ties together geography – telling stories of the land; nationality – telling stories of the nation; and identity – telling stories of the self.

I am the author of Fashion at the Frontier and Fashioning Brazil (Bloomsbury, 2026, 2018) and have published articles in Revista, dObra[s], Dune, ZoneModa, Fashion Theory and Photoworks.

Fashion Histories and Theories

I lead the MA Fashion Histories and Theories and the BA Fashion Histories and Theories at Central Saint Martins.

Contact

elizabeth@elizabethkutesko.com

@elizabeth_kutesko