Lauren Downing Peters, PhD, is associate professor of fashion studies and director of the Fashion Study Collection at Columbia College Chicago. Her interdisciplinary research explores the entanglements of dress, the body, and identity, with a particular emphasis on plus-size fashion and standardized sizing; twentieth-century American fashion; and fashion sustainability. Her publications include Fashion Before Plus-Size: Bodies, Bias, and the Birth of an Industry (Bloomsbury 2023), Fashion in American Life (Bloomsbury 2024), and (Re)Dressing American Fashion: Wear as Witness (Yale University Press 2025).