An array of dots and dashes of color that spell CVAD in Morse Code

Annette Becker

Texas Fashion Collection
Curator & Director

WSC1, Room 103

Welch Street Complex 1
405 S. Welch St., Denton, Texas

940-565-2280

Annette.Becker@unt.edu

Annette is facing forward. She has long brown hair and is wearing a black and white top.

Alum: 2025, Ph.D., History, 2015, M.A., Art History with a minor in Art Education and Graduate Certificate in Art Museum Education

Areas of Expertise: 19th- and 20th-century fashion and material culture, museology
Ph.D. Dissertation Title: “Awarding American Fashion: A Business, Consumer, and Cultural History."

About

As the director and curator of the Texas Fashion Collection, Annette Becker focuses on external-facing projects related to collection research, access and advocacy, ensuring engagement with TFC holdings.
 
To improve accessibility to TFC artifacts, Becker leads academic programming that connects diverse audiences with the collection. This initiative serves 4,500 learners annually, from university classes that augment their curriculum to industry leaders conducting research, as well as individuals enhancing their creative projects. Becker also lectures broadly, speaking to community and professional groups at venues such as the Dallas Museum of Art, Denton Maker Center in Texas, the Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Stonewall, Texas, and the National Arts Club in New York City. These education-oriented efforts have provided impactful access to TFC holdings, sparking new ways for people to understand design, culture and history.
 
Becker augments educational programming with curatorial projects that showcase the TFC’s research and thought leadership in venues ranging from art museums to shopping centers. Her curatorial practice bridges contemporary topics and trends with historic artifacts, connecting popular and academic understandings of fashion history. Recent projects include “Labor of Luxury: Embroidery from India to the World” at NorthPark Center in Dallas and the UNT CVAD Galleries in Denton; “Tongue in Chic: The Humor and High Fashion of Todd Oldham” at the Tyler Museum of Art in Tyler, Texas; “Endless Summer: Florals in Fashion” at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden; and “Fashion Forward” at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas.
 
Becker first served as a graduate student volunteer and area assistant from 2013 to 2015 before returning in 2016 to serve as director. Her work is informed by professional experience in cultural institutions nationwide, including the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky; Kentucky Shakespeare, Louisville, Kentucky; Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts; and Mid-America Arts Alliance, Kansas City, Missouri. She holds an M.A. in Art History with a minor in Art Education and a Ph.D. in History (2025) from UNT.
 

For more on Becker’s object-based research at the TFC, see the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s Center for Design and Material Culture Conversation Series, Feb. 10, 2021.

For more on Becker’s educational programming and outreach, see the Costume Society of America's "Conversation on Dress" video, April 2023.

"Delight: Selections from the Texas Fashion Collection," Jan. 25–May 21, 2022, CVAD Gallery, UNT Art Building

 

"GQ" magazine, May 7, 2020: Texas Fashion Collection "...is now one of the most significant fashion collections in the United States." Read the article.