The Costume Institute Conservation: Assistant Conservator

Kaelyn Garcia is an Assistant Conservator in The Costume Institute, where she manages the conservation of new acquisitions and contributes to departmental exhibitions. Her research focuses on synthetic and plastic materials in fashion and contemporary art, and she has contributed to the ongoing plastic material identification and survey research in The Costume Institute.

She holds a BFA in Fashion Design with a minor in Art History from Columbia College Chicago and an MA in Textile Conservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Kaelyn was previously the Polaire Weissman Fund Fellow in conservation at The Costume Institute and a post-graduate fellow in Costumes and Textile Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She previously served as Assistant Professor in FIT’s graduate program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice. Kaelyn has worked as a fashion and textile designer and textile instructor in New York for more than 15 years, specializing in weaving, embroidery, and bobbin lace.