Natalie Nudell
Education
MA, New York University
Biography
Natalie Nudell is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the History of Art Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, where she teaches about the history of fashion and textiles. Nudell’s research focus is the twentieth century American fashion industry centered on Fashion Calendar, labor and digital humanities.
She is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Fashion Calendar Research Database (FCRD), a digital humanities initiative supported by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and is made possible by funding from The Mellon Foundation. Currently, the FCRD initiative is in its second phase of development with the ongoing “Archiving New York Fashion Week: FCRD x CFDA” a collaboration with the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
Nudell produced and wrote the feature documentary Calendar Girl (2020). She is the author of In American Fashion: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar, published by Bloomsbury Press (2024). Her scholarly and popular articles have been published in The Hidden History of American Fashion (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018), Journal of American Culture (2023), and The Ephemera Journal (2020), among others.
Nudell holds a BAHons in History from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and an MA in Visual Culture and Costume Studies from New York University. She is the 2026 recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Fashion & Culture.
Selected Publications
Nudell, N. In American Fashion: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar. London, UK: Bloomsbury Press, forthcoming July, 2024.
“The Ruth Finley Collection: Teaching the Labor of Fashion with Digital Humanities.” In Teaching Labor History in Art and Design: Capitalism and Creative Industries.Edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Vincent Quan. Routledge Books. 2024.
“Fashion Time: The Fashion Calendar and Scheduling an Industry,” Journal of American Culture– Theme Issue: Fashion, (February 15, 2023).
“The Ruth Finley Collection.” Ephemera Journal, Vol. 22 (2), (January, 2020).
"Beneath the American Museum of Natural History’s Big Blue Whale, Fashions-Finest Attended a Sustainability Themed FIT Gala," Vogue Magazine, April 5, 2019.
"Remembering a Fashion Industry Pioneer," Simmons Magazine, Issue 1 (2), (November, 2018).
"Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar." The Hidden History of American Fashion. Edited by Nancy Deihl. London, U.K.: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018.
“Exhibition review of Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity, ISAW, NYU.” Textile History, Vol. 48 (1), (May 2017).
"The Ruth Finley Collection," The Fashion Studies Journal, Vol. I (3), (April 2017).
"Symposium Review: ‘Black Fashion Designers,'" The Fashion Studies Journal, Vol. I (2) (February, 2017).
"Exhibition review of Manus x Machina, The Metropolitan Museum." The Fashion Studies Journal, Vol. I (1), (October 2016).
Conferences and Presentations
Moderator, “Care in Creative Industries: Fashion and Design Respond to AIDS,” Panel discussion with Steven Kolb and Stan Herman, Poster House Museum, August 6, 2026.
Invited Speaker, “In American Fashion, Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Talk and book signing, Poster House Museum, April 24, 2026.
Invited Speaker, “In American Fashion: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” ADHT, Parsons School of Design, The New School, April 1, 2026.
Invited Speaker, “Barneys New York, Memories and Records of a Cultural Intermediary in Fashion Calendar,” The Oral Histories of Barneys New York Symposium, Fashion Institute of Technology, March 2, 2026.
Invited Speaker, “Calendar Girl: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Industry Practicum, University of Southern California, Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, February 28, 2026.
Invited Speaker, “Calendar Girl: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” ADHT, Parsons School of Design, The New School, November 25, 2025.
Invited Speaker, “The Fashion Calendar Research Database (FCRD), Digital Humanities and the Creative Industries,” talk for Visual Resource Management MA, Pratt Institute, November 24, 2025.
Invited Speaker, “In American Fashion: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” ADHT, Parsons School of Design, The New School, November 10, 2025.
Invited Speaker, “Schmatte Week Vs. Rosh Hashanah: The Influence of Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Jewish Studies Seminar Series, McGill University, November 3, 2025.
Organizer, "Sounds, Silences, and Echoes: Listening for World War II and the Holocaust from North Africa," presented by Dr. Christopher Silver (McGill University), FIT Annual Holocaust Commemoration event, Fashion Institute of Technology, April 22, 2025.
Presenter, “In American Fashion, Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Virtual Author’s Talk hosted by the FIT Gladys Marcus Library, the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, February 19, 2025.
Presenter, “In American Fashion, Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Virtual Book Talk hosted by the Fashion Committee of the National Arts Club, January 27th, 2025.
Invited Speaker, “The Fashion Calendar Research Database (FCRD), Digital Humanities and the Creative Industries,” talk for the Digital Humanities Program at Bard Graduate Center, October 18, 2024.
Presenter, “In American Fashion, Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Book Talk hosted by NYU Costume Studies, New York University, September 25, 2024.
Presenter with Joseph Anderson, “The Fashion Calendar Research Database: Digitizing and Parsing 70 Years of American Fashion,” Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) Digital Humanities Conference 2024: Reinvention & Responsibility, hosted at George Mason University (The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media) in Washington D.C. on August 6th - August 10th, 2024.
Workshop Presenter, “The Fashion Calendar Research Database: US and Canadian Fashion and History,” The Fashion Studies Network Inaugural Symposium, June 6, 2024, held at the Parsons School of Design, New York, NY.
Workshop Panelist, “Application of Digital Databases: FIT Special Collections and Beyond,” Cross Disciplinary Practices of Teaching Business History, organized by Kyunghee Pyun, Rebecca Bauman and Vincent Quan, April 12, 2024, The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY.
Moderator, “Textiles Women and the Holocaust, at the Fashion Institute of Technology,” April 11, 2024, New York, NY
Presenter, “The Ruth Finley Collection: Critical Cataloging, Countering Dominant Narratives, Methods and Practice,” Council on Library and Information Resources - Digital Libraries Federation Forum, November 13-15, 2023, Saint Louis MO.
Keynote Presenter, “The Fashion Calendar Research Database,” at Archiving Fashion Conference: Mapping Fashion Collections,” The Fashion Institute of Technology, November 11, 2023, New York, NY.
Moderator, “Textile Arts, Women and the Holocaust: A discussion between Tanya Singer (Knitting Hope) and Bernice Steinhardt (Art & Remembrance)” at The Montreal Holocaust Museum, September 6, 2023, Montreal Canada.
Presenter, “The Ruth Finley Collection: Digitizing 70 Years of the Fashion Calendar,” at the “Archiving Fashion” Symposium, June 9, 2022, hosted by The American University of Paris and Culture(s) de Modes, Paris, France. Followed by the European premiere of “Calendar Girl,” at The American University of Paris.
Panel Presenter and Chair, “Digitizing the Ruth Finley Collection and Its Value for the Study of American Popular Culture and Fashion.” Served as Chair for “Fashion, Style, Appearance, Consumption & Design II: Dress History, Collections and Analysis” session at the Popular Culture & American Culture Association National Conference, April 13-16, 2022, Seattle, WA (virtual).
Workshop Presenter, “Fashion for Freedom? The Fashion Show, Politics and Diplomacy in Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar” Fashion & Diplomacy Workshop hosted by the Department of Archeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, December 2-3, 2021.
Panelist, “In Conversation: Calendar Girl,” Miami Jewish Film Festival, April 13, 2021.
Panelist, “Art and Design Are Labor,” Art/Works Conference, Fashion Institute of Technology, April 8-9, 2021.
Q&A Moderator, “Getting to Know: Laura Snelgrove,” Presented by Fashion Studies Alliance, March 30, 2021.
Panelist, “The Life and Impact of Calendar Girl Ruth Finley,” Moderated by Petra Slinkard, public program for the Salem Film Festival screening of “Calendar Girl,” and the exhibition “Made It: The Women Who Revolutionized Fashion,” Peabody Essex Museum, March 10th, 2021.
Presenter and Panelist, “Strictly Visual: Fashion and Textile History Devoid of Materiality Via Remote Learning,” part of the panel “How a Pandemic Crash Course in Online Learning Worked Out For the Arts,” Panel Chair Molly Schoen, Visual Resources Association program at the College Art Association Annual Conference [CAA], February 10-13, 2021.
Q&A Panelist, “Calendar Interrupted: The Future of New York Fashion in a Post-Pandemic World,” Moderated by Fern Mallis, co-panelists: Eric Wilson, Nicole Miller, Christina Neault, Christian Bruun, and Maryanne Grisz. Panel discussion organized for “Calendar Girl” by DOC NYC Film Festival, November 17, 2020.
Digital Humanities Committee Chair and Roundtable Moderator/Panelist for “Digital Humanities and Fashion Studies: Benefits and Challenges” with Dr. Justine De Young (FIT) and Dr. Denise Green (Cornell University), The Costume Society of America Annual National Conference, “Made in NY,” FIT, (June 1-June 6, 2020). (Canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic).
Q&A Moderator: “Interview with Dr. Maude Bass-Krueger and Dr. Sophie Kurkdjian,” Getting To Know series, Fashion Studies Alliance. Q&A conducted virtually on May 5, 2020, 11am EDT.
Q&A Moderator: “FSA x ZAZ10TS Curator Talk with fashion historian, Ya’ara Keydar,” for 10 Times Square Rediscovering American Fashion 1982-1997. Held at ZAZ10TS November 20, 2019.
Workshop Participant, The Canadian Fashion Scholars Sixth Annual Symposium. Held at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, September 20th, 2019.
Workshop Organizer and participant: “Fashion in Pedagogy.” Fashion Studies Alliance and Lehman Center for American History, Columbia University workshop. Held at the Lehman Center, Columbia University, October 20, 2018.
Panel Speaker, “An Evening with RBG.” Film Screening and Discussion about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for Experience by Knotel, New York, October 17, 2018.
Presenter, “Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar.” Fashion Studies Alliance Book Launch for The Hidden History of American Fashion. Edited by Nancy Deihl (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2018). New York University, New York, March 19, 2018.
Panel Moderator, “Dialogue and Discourse, Interweaving Cultures: Melanie El-Turk and Michelle Honig,” The Gertrude and David Fogelson Lecture for the exhibition Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress, from the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem at The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, Thursday, January 11, 2018.
Presented research on the Fashion Calendar, The Canadian Fashion Scholars Fourth Annual Symposium, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, September 23, 2017.
Keynote Speaker, “In New York Fashion: Ruth Finley and the Fashion Calendar,” at Dressing New York: Identity and Experience, The Annual Research Symposium of the Fashion and Textiles: History, Theory, Museum Practice Program at FIT’s School of Graduate Studies, May 13, 2017.
Panel Speaker, “Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” panel discussion on the forthcoming documentary hosted by the Costume Studies MA Program, NYU, November 21, 2016.
Presented research on the Fashion Calendar, The Canadian Fashion Scholars Third Annual Symposium, Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, ON, October 22, 2016.
Presented research on the Fashion Calendar, The Costume Society of America, Mid-Atlantic Region, Emerging Scholars Workshop, NYU, New York, NY, April 16, 2016.
Panel Speaker, “L’Officiel de la Mode et de la Couture de Paris; Women, Fashion and the Chambres, 1965-1976,” at The Road to Fashion- Industry Challenges in a Global Economy, Eighteenth Colloquium of the Modern Languages Department, Borough of Manhattan Community College – CUNY, New York, NY, April 20, 2015.
Speaker, selected to present graduate thesis: “L’Officiel de la Mode et de la Couture de Paris; Women, Fashion and the Chambres, 1965-1976,” Thirteenth Annual Richard Martin Visual Culture Symposium, NYU, New York, NY , April 4th, 2014.
Exhibitions
Curatorial Advisor on “Love and Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS,” exhibition on AIDS posters, curated by Ian Bradley-Perrin at the Poster House Museum in New York (March 13, 2026 to September 6, 2026).
Research Assistant, Department of Costume and Textiles McCord Museum for “Mode Expo: Fashioning Expo 67,” McCord Museum, on view March 17 - October 1, 2017. Winner of the 2018 Costume Society of America, Richard Martin Exhibition Award for best costume exhibition in North America (2017).
Co-Curator and Exhibition Designer of “Runway Moments: New York Fashion Week,” -80 WSE Gallery, New York, NY On view from January 25 to February 12, 2014 (September 2013-February 2014)
Awards
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Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral (2026), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
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Recipient of the 2026 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Fashion & Culture
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The Steinhardt School North American Student Scholarship, NYU, New York, NY, 2012-2014
Projects
Co-Principal Investigator and Content Specialist Lead - FIT
The Fashion Calendar Research Database
“Ruth Finley Collection: Digitizing 70 Years of the Fashion Calendar,” archival digitization project in collaboration with Special Collections and College
Archives, Gladys Marcus Library, Fashion Institute of Technology. The project was
supported by the “Digitizing Hidden Collections” grant program funded by the Council
of Library and Information Resources [CLIR]. The grant program is made possible with
funding from The Mellon Foundation.
Principal Investigator, Conference Organizer, Keynote Speaker (January 2022 - November 11, 2023)
“Archiving Fashion Conference: Mapping Fashion Collections,” public one-day conference held at FIT on November 11, 2023. The conference gathered
students, scholars, practitioners in the field of fashion and textile archives. The
conference was supported by grants from The Kress Foundation and The Harnisch Foundation.
Writer/Producer of “Calendar Girl” available on Vod, Amazon, Itunes, DVD, Kanopy and Google Play, March 8, 2022
New York Times review
“Inside the Premiere of Calendar Girl– The Long-Awaited Ruth Finley Documentary,” Vogue
World premiere, DOC NYC Film Festival, November 11-19, 2020
2021 Salem Film Festival, March 2021
2021 Miami Jewish Film Festival, April 14-29, 2021
2021 Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston, May 28-30, 2021
2021 Berkshires International Film Festival, September 9-12, 2021
2021 LA Fashion Film Festival
2022 Boca Raton Jewish Film Festival
2022 McCord Museum, Montreal Canada, October 6, 2022
2022 A Shaded View of Fashion Film Festival 14 at 35/37, Paris, France, November 10-13, 2022
2023 Moritz Feed Dog Barcelona Fashion Documentary Film Festival, Mar 22-24, 2023
Interviews
Cook, Jennie. “In American Fashion, Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture Journal, May 2026.
Vilcek Foundation, “Natalie Nudell: Fashion is Founded by Immigrants,” Vilcek Foundation, February 2, 2026.
Block, Faye. “The Fashion Calendar’s Intersection with Judaism,” Nu Magazine, November 11, 2025.
Carleson, Nora Ellen. “In American Fashion: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar,” Dress, (10 Jul 2025), DOI: 10.1080/03612112.2025.2523683
Joseph, Alex, “Bringing Ruth Finley’s Iconic Fashion Calendar to Digital Life,” Hue Magazine, Fall 2024.
Calahan, April and Cassidy Zachary, “The Fashion Calendar Database, an Interview with Natalie Nudell,” Dressed: The History of Fashion, September 27th, 2024.
Ramzi, Lilah, “Ready to Read: Three New Books Explore the American Fashion Industry,” Vogue, September 17, 2024.
“Natalie Nudell,” Canadians of New York, Season 2, Canadian Consulate General in New York (Youtube), September 6, 2024.
Felicia Caponigri, “Digital Fashion & Heritage,” A Fashion Law Dinner Party with Fashion by Felicia by Felicia Caponigri, Season 1 Episode 6, March 29, 2024.
Robb, Alice. “Bows are Back–And This Time, The Adults Are Joining In,” Vogue Magazine, December, 2023.
Waters, Jamie. “Could You Be Dressing Sexier? A Guide For Men.” The Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2023.
Fagan, Emily. “Beloved yet banned: The surprising history of tie-dye.” National Geographic, May 15, 2023.
Anderson, Hamish. “Once and For All: How Many Shirt Buttons Should Men Undo?” The Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2022.
Lind-Guzik, Anna. “Calendar Girl and What It Tells Us About American Fashion,” Unbreaking Media Podcast: Presented by The Conversationalist, September 8, 2022.
Feitelberg, Rosemary, “Designers and Fashion Execs Celebrate the New Ruth Finley Documentary,” WWD, March 6, 2022.
Ramzi, Lilah, “In New Fashion Documentary Calendar Girl, The Life and Legacy of the Late Ruth Finley Take Center Stage,” Vogue, March 8, 2022.
Ramzi, Lilah, “Inside the Premiere of Calendar Girl– The Long-Awaited Ruth Finley Documentary,” Vogue, March 6, 2022.
Kurkdjian, Sophie, “Interview with Natalie Nudell,” The Fashion Doctors, Podcast episode for the program associated with Culture(s) de Modes, August, 2021.
Keh, Pei-Ru, “New York Love By Design,” TBrand Studio Paid Post for Cartier, The New York Times, August 2021.
Fishman, Elana, “From Madonna to Megan Thee Stallion,” The New York Post, June 30, 2021.
Georgieva, Alexia, “Natalie Nudell On the Fashion Industry,” Art.icle, ConnectArt.ca, May 14, 2020.
Liu, Jennifer, Courtney Connley et al. “13 Ways the Coronavirus Pandemic Could Forever Change the Way We Work.” CNBC Make It, CNBC Online, April 29, 2020.
Wicker, Alden. “American Fashion Changed After the Depression, and It’s About to Reinvent Itself Again.” The Future of Fashion Series, InStyle Magazine Online, April 8, 2020.
Feitelberg, Rosemary. “Ruth Finley Spotlighted in Upcoming Doc,” Women’s Wear Daily, August 23, 2019, p. 11.
Jamieson, Amber. “The Most Iconic Celebrity Courtroom Looks of This Year.” Buzzfeed News, April 11, 2019.
Burckhardt, Anna. “Talking About Ruth’s Fashion Calendar with Natalie Nudell .”
The Museum of Modern Art Items: Is Fashion Modern? Medium post, November, 2, 2018.
Calahan, April and Cassidy Zachary. “Ruth Finley and the Fashion Calendar, an interview with Natalie Nudell .” Dressed: The History of Fashion . Podcast audio, October 9, 2018.
Hagerty, James. “Ruth Finley Set the Schedule for New York’s Fashion World.” Wall Street Journal, (August 31, 2018).
Courses
- HA 215 History of Menswear In Europe and North America
- HA 305 History of 20th Century Textile Design
- HA 322 Contemporary Global Fashion History
- HA 342 History of Textile Design
- HA 344 European Fashion: Ancient Origins to Modern Styles