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Deirdre Clemente
Associate Director, Public History program
Expertise: 20th century American Culture, Fashion and clothing, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Museum studies
About
Deirdre Clemente is a historian and curator of 20th century American culture, specializing in fashion and clothing. She is an expert in the use of fashion in the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald and served as a historical consultant for costume in Baz Luhrmann's film, The Great Gatsby.
Clemente is the associate director of the UNLV public history program. She holds a master of arts degree in Museum Studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in history from Carnegie Mellon. Her research on the intersection of clothing and social change has been published in the Journal of Social History, New England Quarterly, Journal of American Culture, and others. Her book Dress Casual: How College Kids Redefined American Style was published in spring 2014 from UNC Press. The book explores how and why collegians pioneered the adoption of casual dress – one of the most pervasive cultural shifts of the 20th century. Clemente is currently working on her second book titled, Chic Streets: Urban Development, Shopping, and the American Fashion Industry which considers the evolution of New York's Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive and Miami Beach's Lincoln road as places where American clothing was made and marketed.
Deirdre Clemente In The News
Once confined to gyms and studios, yoga pants are now widely accepted attire in many social settings, from the office to the classroom. And this rise in yoga pants as everyday clothing is contributing to a decline in the price of cotton.
As summer nears, many Americans may be getting ready to change their closets for the new season, making room for the more colorful clothing that goes with the warm weather. Amid all that excitement, it's easy to forget that middle-class Americans have really only been wearing colorful clothes regularly for less than a century.
Athleisure is the future. It seems that every major retailer is trying to jump on the movement that was once thought as just a passing trend, but is now seen as a radical shift in what Americans demand from their clothing.
"Athleisure is the new casual," Deirdre Clemente, a professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, recently told Business Insider.
Corinne Entratter Sidney, 79, has always loved fashion. She’s been a model and actress, and spent three months as a Copa Girl in Las Vegas in the ’60s, before marrying casino manager Jack Entratter.
Articles Featuring Deirdre Clemente
History professor Deirdre Clemente chronicles the increasingly casual nature of presidential fashion.
UNLV history professor Deirdre Clemente's newest book highlights a convergence of fashion and consumerism on college campuses.