Ten years ago, after a soul-searing incident involving two enormous grand pianos and a couple of itinerant Englishmen, Melissa Leventon faced a difficult choice: To embark on years of expensive therapy, or to co-found FWI. Happily, she opted for FWI, which - amazingly - is still going strong. When not nagging fellow FWIsters about gig dates, counting the shekels in FWI's checking account or baking batches of gingersnaps to curry favor with the tenors, she lives an exciting, jet-setting existence as the principal of Curatrix Group, a museum consultancy and appraisal firm specializing in textiles and costumes (www.curatrix.net). She also teaches fashion history and fashion theory at California College of the Arts, and lectures frequently on costume and collecting. Melissa owns approximately 317 pairs of shoes, and in her copious free time, she likes to fondle them.