Hello, my name is
Katherine Ibsen
But you can call me Katie!
I am an Illinois-based fashion archivist, YouTuber, and educator.
In my twenties, I pivoted from an imminent career as a professional archaeologist, to working in digital marketing, and am now a fashion studies scholar studying the socio-cultural phenomenon of vintage fashion and collections management.
As a fashion archivist, my work focuses on increasing access to university fashion collections through collaborative projects including digitization, developing teaching guides for faculty use, and curating engage exhibits to enhance student learning.
I am never doing just one thing, though! Alongside my professional and academic pursuits, I consistently engage in numerous creative projects from costuming to creating educational social media content to exploring every facet of fiber arts.
The story behind TheVintageAcademic
Studying fashion
While my original educational background focused on anthropological archaeology, I have been an avid member of the online vintage community outside of my academics. During my senior year at UC Berkeley, I knew that pursuing archaeology was no longer right for me. Meanwhile, I spent many final projects exploring anthropological understandings of dress and bodily adornment, leading me to pursue an education in Fashion Studies at Parsons School of Design.
In my time as a graduate student, I have continued to develop my understanding and produce scholarship concerning the complexities of vintage fashion in digital spaces with a focus on post-colonial theory, subcultural style, and anti-racist efforts in the vintage community.
Through these studies, I became increasingly uncomfortable with my original conception of vintage, and have since re-oriented my own dress practices to better reflect this.
Vintage Style & Challenging Vintage Values
The Vintage Academic Started with an outfit
As an avid cosplayer who turned my attention towards my academics, I craved the flair for the dramatic my costumes gave my daily life, but simply didn’t have the time for. The solution: vintage!
Not only am I an avid fan of fashion (seeing as I study it!), but there’s just something about vintage advertisements, old Hollywood glam and a dash of cottagecore for good measure that I love. Deciding to wear vintage was a logical step away from cosplay, but towards expressing my creativity and dedication to sustainable self-expression.
While I no longer go by @thevintageacademic (I’m simply @katieibsen these days), the name will always have a special place in my history as it set me on the path to studying fashion the way I do today.
Education
Scholarship
Education
Master of Arts (M.A.) in Fashion Studies, Highest Distinction - Parsons School of Design (2024)
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Anthropology, Highest Honors - University of California, Berkeley (2022)
Associate of Arts (A.A.) in Anthropology - Sacramento City College (2020)
Written Work
(Not yet published)
Vintage Fashion, Vintage Lives: Clothing and Social Media in the Far-Right
Awards
Departmental Honors - Parsons School of Design (2024)
Highest Distinction in General Scholarship - UC Berkeley (2022)
2022 NISTS Transfer Student Ambassador
Osher Re-Entry Scholarship (2022)
UC Berkeley Undergraduate Scholarship (2021-22)
EOP Academic Achievement Award (2021-22)
AmeriCorps Education Award (2021)
Beinecke Foundation Scholarship, Nominated Fall 2021 (Not Received)
Phi Theta Kappa (2019-20)
academic conference presentations
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costume society of america symposium
“The Extreme Far-Right Fashion System: On the Transnational Design of White Supremacy in Europe and the U.S.”
June 2025
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Unravelling Fashion Narratives
“Vintage Style, Vintage Lives: Clothing and Social Media in the White Nationalist Moment”
June 2024
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Art and design history and theory symposium
“Defining Fashion”
May 2024
