Magali An Berthon
What is your full name?
Magali An Berthon.
What is your first name?
Magali An.
Where were you born?
Montreal, Canada.
Where do you currently reside and work?
Paris, France.
What is your educational background?
I obtained a BA in Visual communication from Ensaama Olivier de Serres in Paris, and thereafter an MA in Textiles from l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Ensad) in Paris. I also received a Fulbright Fellowship on the MA Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, and a PhD in Design History at the Royal College of Art in London.
What are other details of experiences, work or otherwise, that have led you to your current work?
I have been in the field of textiles and fashion for twenty years, in different roles. I had first started my career as a textile designer in Paris and abroad as a consultant before expanding towards writing and documentary, focusing on crafts, design, and textiles topics.
After a decade as a creative, I decided to do a graduate school in New York to study fashion and textile history and museum practices, which then led to a PhD in Design History in London, during which I explored silk practices in post-conflict Cambodia. I also taught in several masters programmes during my PhD. I then did a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, exploring dress and textile in the Cambodian civil war and Khmer Rouge regime. And I eventually joined the American University of Paris nearly two years ago, where I teach Fashion Studies as an Assistant Professor.
How would you describe your practice/business?
I am a textile, fashion and craft expert: a historian, educator, curator and documentarian. I first had a career as a textile designer for fashion companies, trend forecasting agencies and home textiles brands before shifting for academia. I have specialised in the history, processes and material aspects of Southeast Asian textiles and dress , focusing onCambodia, under global history and decolonial lenses.
What are the highlight projects in your career so far?
In 2018, I directed the mid-length documentary Dancing in Silk shot in Long Beach, California that followed a group of young Cambodian American dancers of the Royal Ballet tradition. The film premiered in 2019 at the Dancing on Camera Film Festival in New York and was screened in several other festivals. In 2024, I curated the exhibition The Art of Ikat: A Cambodian Renaissance at the Royal Danish Library/University of Copenhagen, assisted by Morten Grymer-Hansen. This show was the conclusion of my postdoctoral fellowship and presented part of my research focusing on the loss of textile heritage and knowledge during and after the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
I co-curated the exhibition Au Fil de l’or at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris in 2025 on the global history of gold threads and was in charge of the Asian segments of the show. I was very pleased to feature a rare selection of Cambodian textiles as part of this large exhibition that spanned several continents.
What are you currently working on?
Besides teaching, I am currently developing a glossary of 100 fashion and textile terms in Khmer, English, and French as an open-access digital resource. I continue to study Cambodian textiles in French and U.S. institutions for future research. I hope to turn all my work on Cambodian textiles and dress production and practices into a monograph.
Instagram: @worldtextiles_artisans