ABOUT ME

Leigh Wishner is a design historian specializing in modern textiles, fashion, and interiors. She has worked in the antiques and museum field for the past 25 years, holding positions at the FIDM Museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and at Cora Ginsburg LLC. 

Leigh received her B.A. in Art History and Archaeology from Barnard College, and her M.A. in Decorative Arts and Material Culture from Bard Graduate Center. Her passion for the entwined subjects of 20th-century fabrics, apparel, and furnishings is shared extensively through lectures, essays, social media, and her vintage business, Totally Textiles. In 2023, she contributed to the multi-award-winning A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes (Yale University Press/Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum), the first major publication devoted to this pioneering American weaver.

Always exploring topics connecting textile artists with industry, Leigh is currently writing a book on d.d. & Leslie Tillett, wedded mavericks of mid-century textile design and fabric creation. She is also working on Pattern Play USA: Adventures in Twentieth-Century Textile Design, a book celebrating the diversity and impact of fabrics designed and produced in America.