Raissa Bretaña

Raissa Bretaña is a New York City-based fashion historian known for her interdisciplinary approach to fashion history and costume design. Bretaña holds a Master of Arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, and Museum Practice, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Costume Design from Boston University. Her professional experience spans theater, opera, film, and television, where she has contributed as a researcher, writer, lecturer, and educator, focusing on the socio-cultural connections within fashion history and its integration across various media platforms.

Bretaña has delivered lectures throughout the United States and internationally on topics including nineteenth-century dress reform, the Golden Age of Couture, period costume in Hollywood cinema, and the history of fashionable footwear. She serves as a staff member at the Museum at FIT, has taught in the History of Art department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and has worked at the New-York Historical Society, where she educated museum visitors about fashion history and the women's suffrage movement. Bretaña is also engaged as a historical consultant and researcher for costume designers working on films and television shows with period settings.

Bretaña is recognized by general audiences for her media work. She hosted "Would They Wear That?" for Glamour, a video series in which she fact-checked historical costumes in popular media, analyzing productions such as "Bridgerton," "The Crown," "Downton Abbey," and "The Great Gatsby." She has consulted on and appeared as a guest on "Follow the Thread" for Turner Classic Movies, a series exploring the relationship between fashion and film, and has appeared as an expert in documentaries for CNN.

As an author, Bretaña has contributed to the field of fashion history through her publications. Her book "Shoes" presents 250 examples of footwear from the seventeenth century to the present, highlighting works by contemporary designers and providing overviews of each era's styles and innovations. She co-authored "Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood" with Ira M. Resnick, featuring a foreword by Jane Fonda, which profiles leading actresses of the Golden Age and examines how they used fashion and glamour to shape their images. Her forthcoming title, "Fashion in the Gilded Age," is scheduled for publication by Abbeville Press. Through her writing, teaching, and on-screen presence, Bretaña advances the study of fashion history as a lens for understanding culture and society.