Faculty

Profile

Dr. Sonya Abrego is a New York City based design historian specializing in the history of American fashion in the twentieth century. Her work examines the intersections between dress, popular culture, American cultural history, and how clothing communicates and signifies from past to present. She is currently working on a book about Westernwear in the postwar United States.

Sonya earned her doctorate in Decorative Arts Design and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center in 2016 and has worked as a visiting instructor at Parsons: The New School for Design, The Pratt Institute, New York University, and The Fashion Institute of Technology. Her teaching platform includes courses of her own design such as "A Cultural History of Denim" and "Fashion & Masculinity" along with comprehensive fashion and textile history surveys at both graduate and undergraduate levels. 

With writing that bridges the scholarly and popular, Sonya was a founding member and senior editor for Worn Fashion Journal, and has contributed to scholarly journals such as Fashion Theory and The Journal of Design History. In addition, she has worked with costume collections at New York City museums and sourced, identified, and maintained a working private collection of men's and women's vintage clothing, pieces of which have contributed to television and cinematic productions and design archives.

Professional Affiliation

Costume Society of America, American Studies Association, Organization of American Historians 

Research Interests

Ready-to-wear, Westernwear, Material Culture studies, Western History, Opositioal Dress and Subculture, Pop Culture