Internationally recognized curator, art historian and appraiser practiced in fashion, costume and textiles.

Selected Exhibits

Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse

The first McQueen exhibition on the West Coast, Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse contextualizes the designer’s imaginative work within a canon of artmakers who drew upon analogous themes and visual references. Exploring imagination, artistic process, and innovation in fashion and art, the exhibition examines the interdisciplinary impulse that defined the designer’s career.

Work Experience

2023-present

Independent Curator
Curator of forthcoming exhibition Modern Chinese Fashion (working title), opening Spring 2026 at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Responsibilities include organizing permanent-collection checklist; proposing museum acquisitions; cataloguing artworks; cultivating donor relationship; editing and authoring forthcoming accompanying exhibition catalogue and soliciting contributing authors; collaborating across museum departments to oversee artwork conservation and mounting, catalogue photography, exhibition design and installation; overseeing 3D- printed mannequin design collaboration with Jason Wu; contributing to opening events and related programming, tour, and publicity.

2022-2023

Assistant Curator
Assistant Curator for encyclopedic collection of over 35,000 costume and textile objects representing more than 100 cultures and over 2,000 years of creative history. Costume and Textiles (C&T), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Co-curated permanent-collection exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (over 180 objects; 6,000 sq. ft.; April-October 2022) and international tour [Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (December 2022-April 2023); Alexander McQueen: Art Meets Fashion, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City (June-September 2023)]. Co-authored accompanying exhibition and tour venue catalogues. Exhibition responsibilities included artwork acquisitions and cataloguing; managing project budgets and staffing; maintaining donor, lender, vendor, and artist relationships, including collaborations with Michael Schmidt and exhibition designer Michael Maltzan Studio; close collaboration with LACMA and tour venue museum staff across departments, including managing CITES considerations; co-organizing related programming, including Eighth R.L Shep Triennial Symposium and original commissioned performance Flipping Stereotypes on Their Stilettos by Native Voices. Additional responsibilities included contributing expertise and interpretation to various departmental and museum-wide initiatives in support of mission.

2017-2022

Curatorial Assistant
Costume & Textiles (C&T), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Responsibilities included proposing and managing departmental exhibitions, installations, light-sensitive rotations, outgoing loans, fundraising, programming, studio visits, and artist collaborations and commissions. Conducted research appointments, appraisals, and classes in offsite storage facilities and Doris Stein Research Center; fielded solicitations for expertise from the public. Organized and managed permanent collection database (TMS) and collections online. Collaborated across museum departments to coordinate artwork movement, conservation, and photography. Mounted and dressed costumes for photography, events, and installations. Worked closely with curatorial and other museum staff and donors to oversee departmental acquisitions, promised gifts, and deaccessions.

2013-2018

Curatorial Assistant
Curatorial Assistant for institutional collaboration with the Lloyd Cotsen Textile Traces Collection, a study collection of 4,000 encyclopedic textiles dating from the archaeological to contemporary. Costume & Textiles and Lloyd Cotsen Textile Traces Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Responsibilities included technical weave and fiber analysis; provenance research; and standardizing database cataloguing. Managed new publication-quality photography of over 8,000 collection images and microscopic conservation photography of select objects. Collaborated across museum departments and with outside expert advisors and artists to facilitate rehousing and/or treatment and/or conservation of artworks and

to perform material content analysis. Assisted in organization of related textile workshops and special exhibition Fragmentary Tales: Selections from the Lloyd Cotsen “Textile Traces” Collection. Facilitated communication, contracts, negotiations, budgets, and project management between LACMA, Cotsen Foundation staff, and expert contributors. Directed Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellow on project.

2012-2013

Graduate Fellow
Costume & Textiles (C&T), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Funded graduate internship to research, catalogue, and re-house two major permanent- collection acquisitions: the Sirop Collection of 158 high-fashion garments spanning 130 years, and a donation of 113 global dress and textile objects.

2012

Fashion Design Instructor
Continuing Studies Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)

Instructor of introductory sewing and pattern making techniques.

2011-2012

Graduate Intern
European Painting and Sculpture The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Independent study and graduate internship in support of Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity (2012-2013 Musée d’Orsay, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago) and accompanying exhibition catalogue.

2009-2010

Assistant Designer and Special Projects Curatorial Assistant
J.F. & Son, New York City, NY

Assistant to collaboration series with artists including Ulrike Müller and K8 Hardy.

2009

Intern
Department of Fashion Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ

Responsibilities included collections and database management, artwork cataloguing, mannequin dressing, and assisting with the exhibitions Medievalism: Fashion’s Romance with the Middle Ages (February-July, 2009) and One for All, and All for One: The Jumpsuit (September-February, 2009).

Education

2010-2012

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Master of Design, Fashion Design with concentration in Exhibition Studies

2005-2009

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Apparel Design

2006

Brown University
French Conversation, Grammar, and Literature

Skills

Object based:

Archival artwork packing, labeling, housing, and installation; familiarity with pest-management best practices and preventative conservation; mannequin dressing and costume mount-making; pattern-drafting from museum costume; apparel pattern drafting and draping; CIETA weave structure analysis and fiber identification expertise.

Language:

Reading knowledge of French

Digital:

Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint; iWork: Pages, Keynote, Numbers; Google Documents and Google Drive; The Museum System database (TMS); Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop; Resource Space software.

Media:

X, Facebook, Instagram, Theads, TikTok, Tumblr, YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud.

Affiliations

CIETA (Centre international d'étude des textiles anciens)

Costume Society of America

Textile Society of America

Machine Project

Exhibitions & Installations

Curator, Modern Chinese Fashion (working title), LACMA (forthcoming Spring 2026)

Curator, Dress Codes: Abstraction in Ancient Peruvian Textiles (working title), LACMA Geffen Galleries (forthcoming 2025)

Co-Curator, Indonesian Batik: Wax-Resist Cloth and Cultural Exchange (working title), LACMA Geffen Galleries (forthcoming 2025)

Co-Curator, The Woodcut: Repetition, Expansion, Revival (working title), LACMA (forthcoming 2025) Costume Consultant, Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, LACMA (Sept. 2023-Jan. 2024) Textile Consultant, Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982, LACMA (Feb.-July 2023)

Costume Consultant, Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980, LACMA (Oct. 2022-Feb. 2023)

Co-Curator, Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, LACMA (April-Oct. 2022); Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Dec. 2022-April 2023); Alexander McQueen: Art Meets Fashion, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City (June-Sept. 2023)

Textile Consultant, Not I: Throwing Voices (1500 BCE-2020 CE), LACMA (April-July, 2021) Costume Consultant, Every Living Thing: Animals in Japanese Art, LACMA (Sept.-Dec., 2019)

Assistant, Collectors Committee Installation: African-American Quilts by Laverne Brackens, Mary Lue “Mother” Brown, Sherry Byrd, Effie Jackson, and Rosie Lee Tompkins, LACMA (April 2019)

Courier, The Life of Animals in Japanese Art, National Gallery of Art (June-Aug., 2019)

Assistant, Power of Pattern: Central Asian Ikat from the David and Elizabeth Reisbord Collection, LACMA (Feb-July, 2019)

Textile Consultant, Korean Rank Badge Light Sensitive Rotation, LACMA (August 2018)

Assistant, Collectors Committee Installation: African Ceremonial Barkcloth Paintings, LACMA (April 2018)

Costume Installation, Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985, LACMA/ Getty (Sept. 2017-April 2018) Courier, Icons of Style, Getty Center (June-Oct. 2018)

Assistant, Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015, LACMA (April-Aug., 2016); Saint Louis Art Museum (June-September 2017); Powerhouse Museum (May-Oct., 2018)

Assistant, African Textiles and Adornment: Selections from the Marcel and Zaira Mis Collection, LACMA (April- Oct., 2015)

Assistant, Fragmentary Tales: Selections from the Lloyd Cotsen Textile Traces Collection, LACMA (Aug.- Oct, 2014)

Publications

Research Report: Esguerra, Clarissa M. and Michaela Hansen, “Reframing Fashion in the Exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse,” Dress, 2024, (forthcoming).

Exhibition Catalogue: ed. Esguerra, Clarissa M. and Michaela Hansen, with Katie Somerville and Danielle Whitfield, Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria; New York: Delmonico Books/DAP, 2022.

Exh. Cat: Esguerra, Clarissa M. and Michaela Hansen, Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Delmonico Books, 2022.

Exh. Cat. (Assistant): Esguerra, Clarissa M.,The Power of Pattern: Central Asian Ikats from the David and Elizabeth Reisbord Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.

Blog: Reinventing the Woman’s Uniform: A Fashion Design Masterclass with MADWORKSHOP, Jason Wu, and LACMA, Unframed, LACMA, 2018.

Exh. Cat. (Assistant): Takeda, Sharon S., Kaye D. Spilker, and Clarissa M. Esguerra. Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Prestel, Delmonico Books, 2016.

Research Paper: “Batik, ja, batik:” Wiener Werkstätte Batik from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Cotsen Textile Traces Collections, Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 988, 2016.

Exh. Cat. (Graduate Intern): Groom, Gloria. Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, Art Institute of Chicago, 2012

Juried Research Papers & Presentations

2020

2019

2018

2016

2013

2012

“A Kati Rimo Textile Design by Alexander McQueen,” Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium

“The Eye Collection: Alexander McQueen Brings Orientalism to New York,” Costume Society of America National Symposium (Accepted paper; symposium canceled due to covid-19 pandemic)

“Crackle: The Indonesian Inspiration behind Wiener Werkstätte Fashion Division Batik,” Costume Society of America National Symposium

“Limited Edition: Wax-Resist Dyed Textiles for Wiener Werkstätte Fashion,” Costume Colloquium VI: Textiles in Fashion-Creativity in Context

“’Batik, ja, Batik,’ Austrian Batik in Los Angeles Collections,” Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium

“Jane Addams, Hull House, and the Subject of Clothes,” Costume Society of America National Symposium

“Starch Is the Man: A Comparative Study of the Dandy and the Guido,” Costume Society of America National Symposium

Teachings, Workshops, Lectures & Symposia (Selected)

2023

2022

2021

2019

2018

2017

2014

2013

Webinar Panelist: “A Conversation with Michael Schmidt,” LACMA

Invited Speaker: “Making the Exhibition: Lee Alexander McQueen,” Virginia Robinson Gardens

Invited Speaker: “Textile Inspirations in Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse,” Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, Inc.

Co-Organizer: Eighth R.L. Shep Triennial Symposium; Virtual programming series relating to LACMA exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse

Webinar Panelist: “Behind the Scenes: McQueen,” LACMA

Assistant: “Costume Council: A Presentation of Elizabethan Embroidery with Melinda Watt,” LACMA

Instructor and Co-Organizer: “Reinventing the Woman’s Uniform: A Fashion Design Masterclass with Jason Wu,” MADWORKSHOP and LACMA, Department of Costume and Textiles

Guest Lecturer: 2-D Design, Department of Art, Pomona College

Lecturer and Workshop Organizer: “The History, Anatomy, and Construction of the Pocket,” for Omega Workshop: An Experiment in Counter-Fashion, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) Project Space

Lecturer and Workshop Organizer: “Pocket Sewing 101,” Machine Project; Woman’s Center for Creative Work

Visiting Artist: 2-D Design, Department of Art, Pomona College

Co-Organizer: Textile Society of America Biennial Symposium Pre-Symposium Workshop, “Early Chinese Textile Analysis Featuring Selections from the Lloyd Cotsen Textile Traces Collection,” with Zhao Feng (China National Silk Museum), Elena Phipps (UCLA), Textile Society of America, and LACMA C&T

Co-Organizer: Lloyd Cotsen Textile Traces Collection Think Tank, LACMA

Public Programs

2022

Co-Organizer: Procession: An Evocation for McQueen with San Cha and Olima

Co-Organizer: Flipping Stereotypes on Their Stilettos with Native Voices at the Autry

Co-Organizer: Eighth R.L Shep Triennial Symposium

Awards

2018

2012

2011-2012

Costume Society of America Travel Research Grant

Department of Exhibition Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Graduate Curatorial Fellowship

Co-Organizer: Eighth R.L Shep Triennial Symposium

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Laurel Mackie Memorial Grant