Emma McClendon is a fashion historian, curator, and author based in New York City. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. While Associate Curator of Costume at The Museum at FIT from 2011-2020, McClendon curated numerous critically acclaimed exhibitions including Power Mode: The Force of Fashion (2019), The Body: Fashion and Physique (2017) and Denim: Fashion's Frontier (2015). She has also taught in the MA Fashion Studies programs at Parsons School of Design and The Fashion Institute of Technology.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, CNN, The Washington Post, Vogue, WWD, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal among others. 

She holds an MA Hons. in Art History from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and an MA in the History of Dress from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She is currently completing her PhD at the Bard Graduate Center for decorative arts, design history, and material culture in New York City.

Her research focuses on the power dynamics inherent in clothing with a particular interest in body politics, labor, technology, and standardized sizing.