NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 16: Keli Goff attends the Legal Defense Fund’s 36th National Equal Justice Awards Dinner at The Glasshouse on May 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
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“At the end of the day,” Keli Goff told me, “I really am a fashion history nerd and the collection has become a fun way for me to express that. But what’s funny is since I don’t do most social media at this point, my collection was a big secret for a long time. Because it’s really about the love of the designers and the history, and the clothes in the old movies.”
This seems like a great place to explain a couple of things about Goff’s collection, and the rather impressive things she has been doing, mostly below the radar, for quite a long time. Because, you must understand, Keli Goff is the sort of person that the term ‘multi-hyphenate’ was coined for.
Let me tell you a little bit about her background.
After getting her B.A at New York University, she earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University in Strategic Communication. In addition to being an Emmy-nominated, multi-platform producer, Goff is also a playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. She has interviewed politicians like Rep. Adam Schiff and Amb. Nikki Haley for The Hollywood Reporter. Anne Klein asked Goff to write their 2024 impact campaign, which specifically celebrated women who empower and inspire others.
Goff has written for just about every major magazine (Vogue, Essence, Cosmopolitan, Time, etc.), and contributed to even more online publications, from The Root to The Daily Beast. Goff has worked with NPR for years, my introduction to her was one of the episodes she guest hosts for KCRW’s Left, Right & Center. She was a writer and producer for multiple episodes of And Just Like That…, and she’s a Co-Executive Producer on Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown. She makes documentaries.
Keli Goff attends HBO Max’s premiere of “And Just Like That” at Museum of Modern Art on December 08, 2021. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
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Please know, all of the above is a list far from complete. I wanted as much space as possible to write about Goff’s collection of vintage apparel and the donations she has been quietly making to the most important fashion and costume collections in the world.
While the vintage and historic clothing Goff collects comes from a wide range of designers and eras, one of her overarching goals is to find and preserve pieces designed by designers of color, often exceptional work which deserves a lot more attention from all of us who love fashion history.
I wanted to know what her definition of a collector was. It’s an amorphous word that means different things to different people.
“Gosh, it’s so hard to answer,” Goff said with a laugh. “I still feel funny about using that term. To me, it has such funny connotations of like, an heiress or something. But I think that’s conditioning, right? We’re taught that there are only certain people who collect. I’m still making peace with that identity, even though it’s been made very clear to me that that is accurate, particularly by curators who’ve seen the collection and most of it in its entirety, not all of it.”
I asked what had changed, because this lovely woman I was speaking to gave no indication that she felt anything but confident in pursuing work she loved. Work, I might add, that the world is coming around to appreciating. This writer does not believe that what people wear will remain unimportant in cultural discussions about history and heritage.
“I have a new rep in terms of writing named Tahira,” Goff explained, “who’s really just a fabulous woman. But one of the greatest gifts she gave me is I realized that at some point along my writing career, I had somehow gotten the message that serious writers don’t care about fashion. And I don’t know, I think that wasn’t just like one person or two people. There’s a cultural messaging that serious people don’t care about style and they don’t care about fashion. And I now see that as yet another trick to diminish things that are often championed by women. Fields that are often led by women. Not entirely fashion, but the things that we care about. it was a real gift that Tahira gave me by saying, no, your collection is important. And particularly at this moment in time where culture really seems to be the front line of our political and cultural wars, if you will. And museums have become a part of that. Pop culture is a huge part of that. And fashion is a big part of pop culture. But it was really freeing to have someone whose real responsibility is to help guide and steer my writing career, say to me, there is no separation between you writing about very moving and meaningful and serious topics, like mental health and abuse, and caring about the history of fashion and Black designers and that’s not something you need to downplay or keep a secret. That has been really refreshing for me.
Keli Goff, looking FABULOUS, at the Sergio Hudson Fall/Winter 2025 Fashion Show. (Photo by Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Goff has begun talking about this work, there have been features in both Essence and Town & Country, and I was thrilled when she agreed to meet with me, and I started our conversation by asking her what had convinced her to start talking about what had once been a private project more publicly.
“I think, and this is some cultural messaging, but some of the people in my life, in ‘serious writer land’, had the idea of like, but there’s so many more important things you could be doing,” Goff said to me. “I think that was the perception. And then, once museums really became the frontlines of the current culture wars, with people really asking questions about the content of exhibitions, who’s working at institutions; it really demonstrated to me how important it is to make sure that my collection is in the right institutions and being shepherded by the right people who can make sure that it’s available to have impact and purpose. That’s what I care about with the collection.”
“I should say that one of the big reasons,” Goff continued, “I had conversations with people when I was really starting this was about my donation plans,because I’ve chosen not to have children. So, I’ve decided all of my major pieces are going to go to major institutions. But it’s been a very complicated process, particularly if you’re not from a privileged background, and you didn’t grow up in a family that was doing large scale institutional giving. I certainly came from a family that donated to church and to local charities. But, this long term institutional giving, it’s been a real lesson. A lot of it is me learning as I go, asking friends who know more than I do to guide me to other people who know more.
In this journey people have said to me, you’ll find your people. So what I’ve really learned through this process is I invest in people, not places. I’ve met with a number of people from major institutions, but one of the reasons I fundamentally decided to give two of my favorite pieces to the Victoria & Albert is because their curators are really extraordinary human beings.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 10: Keli Goff attends the Style Across The Aisle showcase during New York Fashion Week on September 10, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images)
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One of whom is Dr. Christine Shoshinska, she’ll come up again a little later in our conversation.
It feels important to mention that between Keli’s and my conversation and the publication of this article, she reached back out to me with some truly exciting, and very important news about her donations to the museum. It turns out that the Stephen Burrows dress and Patrick Kelly coat were the first acquisitions for both designers for the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the correspondence went on to mention how much the museum looked forward to building upon the foundation Goff’s donation represented.
That is such a big deal, I’m not sure I have words, and as uncool as it may be, I told her as much.
“Start with the pieces.” Goff suggested, and I was more than happy to follow her lead.
“One of them is a Stephen Burrows dress with lettuce hem that I can no longer fit in,” Goff told me. I wear my pieces.”
So did Tina Chow I said, and she saved countless pieces by Henriette Negrin and Mariano Fortuny.
Keli Goff wearing the Stephen Burrows gown she donated to the V&A and wore to the opening “zoom party” of her play “The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks & Curls.” In the background are two dresses and a coat by Patrick Kelly and a dress by Scott Barrie
Photo By: Robert Caldarone / Courtesy of Keli Goff
“One of the reasons it’s special,” Goff told me with a smile, “is because I actually wore it opening night for my play, The Glorious World of Crowns, Kinks & Curls, at Baltimore Center Stage, but it was only visible on Zoom because it was during COVID. It was really monumental because it was the first time one of my plays was at a major theater. And it was a really extraordinary experience because since it was because of COVID, women around the world could stream it. so lots and lots of people actually saw the play, and it’s since been done at other theaters.”
“I wore the Stephen Burrows dress opening night for the Zoom opening,” Goff explained. “I just love Stephen’s dresses and it’s a dress that a lot of curators really like because not only does it have the legendary lettuce hem, but he did this draping on the front that’s fairly extraordinary. It’s a really special dress, and I have a lot of his dresses, and this one is special. He’s a genius.It’s really beautiful, it looks like it’s a natural Grecian drape in the front, but he had to do all of this technical work. And it’s something that every curator has commented on whenever they’ve come to see my collection.”
The second piece, a jacket, that Goff donated to the V&A was designed by Patrick Kelly. “It is the tiger print, pink and white jacket that was in the Pratt exhibition” Goff said.
Goff is also the owner of a rather covet-able piece, an actual Ann Lowe designed debutante gown.
Keli Goff wearing her Ann Lowe debutante gown at the opening of Elizabeth Way’s Ann Lowe exhibition at the Winterthur.
Courtesy of Keli Goff
“I was photographed wearing it at the opening of FIT’s African Diaspora exhibit by Dr. Elizabeth Way.”
Goff described the night of the FIT exhibition as a “full circle moment,” especially when the photographer from Town & Country took a photograph that she will likely forever cherish.
“The photo from that evening,” Goff explained, “is with me and Liz Way and Anne Lowe’s great granddaughter, Linda Ann Dixon, who is just a wonderful human.”
During the talk that Dr. Way gave at the exhibition opening, she mentioned Dr. Christine Checinska, who is Senior Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion and Textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Goff decided to send her an email.
Keli Goff holding “Behind the Scenes,” a book by Elizabeth Keckley, the too long forgotten dressmaker to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.
Courtesy of Keli Goff
“It just all felt like kismet, like the fashion gods were happy,” Goff told me. “Dr. Christine and her team, Connie, Carol Burks, and the rest of the team, they just really care about all of the things that I do, which is really using fashion as a form of storytelling and as a way to bring as many people as possible into museums. To feel seen, to help make people feel seen. And that’s deeply important to me that it doesn’t feel like fashion exhibitions are only for certain kinds of people, that they’re really for everybody. And the Victoria & Albert Museum is deeply committed to making sure that every kid feels welcome through their doors to dream. That’s hugely important to me.”
“I really see this as the beginning,” Keli Goff told me. “because I think they’re really getting it right. I think they care about a lot of the same things that I do in terms of using my collection to reach people and to have impact. I really see this as the beginning of a relationship.”
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