Gillion Carrara is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the School of the Art institute of Chicago. She has been employed in the Department since 1991, and in the Department of Fashion Design since 1978. In her studies, her focus is on contemporary and avant-garde fashion and dress, art, literature, sociology and the aesthetics of fashion and dress. Until 2017, she was the founding Director of the Fashion Resource Center, and for thirty years built a collection of contemporary and avant-garde fashion, publications and various media. It is not a historic collection but a hands-on visual and tactile collection. She actively writes book and exhibition reviews for publication. She presents lectures locally and nationally, attends costume symposiums, travels to costume exhibitions and is on the Board of Costume Colloquium, Florence, Italy, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the Costume Society of America (CSA).