JILL D’ALESSANDRO
Curator of Guo Pei Couture Fantasy
A Philosophical Idea and a Spark of Inspiration
By Heide VanDoren Betz
Photo by Arndt Dodson
Jill D’Alessandro is the curator in charge of Costume and Textile Arts at The Fine Arts Museums of
San Francisco. In her position, she oversees the collection of costumes and textiles from 125 countries worldwide.
As a curator in charge, she manages a collection of 14,000 textiles and costumes from Asia, Africa,
Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. She is responsible for the research and development of in-house and
traveling exhibitions. She is responsible for the development of the costume and textile collection including
making acquisitions and overseeing de-accessioning as well as for the programming in the educational gallery
and the creation of interpretative materials. In addition, Jill D’Alessandro works closely with the education
department in the development and implementation of symposiums, lecture series, public programs, and audio
tours.
D’Alessandro earned her bachelor’s degree from Scripps College, Claremont, CA, and her master’s
degree from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA in textile arts. In 1998, she received a Fulbright Scholarship
to study in South Korea, where she focused on traditional hand papermaking techniques and their application
in contemporary art. She has also studied textile traditions in Bali, Indonesia, Mexico, and Guatemala. Jill has
contributed essays to Fiberarts, Hali, Tribal Arts magazines, and Anthropology and Beauty: From Aesthetics to
Creativity published by Routledge, as well as numerous museum publications.
Since 2002, D’Alessandro has developed numerous exhibitions on a diverse variety of subjects,
ranging from world textile traditions to twentieth-century fashion design. As a curator, the Fine Arts Museums
collections have greatly informed D’Alessandro’s worldview and she is interested in the study of textile arts as a
vehicle to draw connections across cultures. More recent projects include The Summer of Love Experience: Art,
Fashion and Rock & Roll (2017) and Contemporary Muslim Fashions (2018), for which she both co-curated and
co-edited the exhibition catalog.
Jill D’Alessandro’s Impressive List of Exhibitions:
Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy 2022
Rodarte, National Museum of Women in the Arts (guest curator) 2018
Contemporary Muslim Fashions (co-curator) 2018
The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll (co-curator) 2017
On the Grid: Textiles and Minimalism 2016
Kay Sekimachi: Student, Teacher, Artist: T.B. Walker Foundation Textile Education Gallery 2016
High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Collection (presenting) 2015
Religion, Imagery, and Cloth: Lao-Tai Textile Tradition: T. B. Walker Foundation Textile Education Gallery 2015
Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection (co-curator) 2014
From the Exotic to the Mystical: Textile Treasures from the Permanent Collection 2013
Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance (presenting) 2012
The Fashion World of Jean-Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk (presenting)
About the show-stopping exhibition Guo Pei: Couture Fantasy Jill D’Alessandro, Curator in Charge
of Costume and Textile Art explains: “For Guo Pei, each collection starts with a philosophical idea—a spark of
inspiration—drawn from a wide range of sources from her personal life and travels, as well as art and architecture,
literature, and nature. Layers of meaning and imagery form a bricolage of opulent surfaces imposed upon sculptural
silhouettes.