I’ve been researching late 18th c. skirt supports — what were called in the period “bums” or “rumps,” and what many costumers call “bumrolls” — for a long time now. I finally managed to write up my research and to create a bunch of prototype shapes to experiment with the shapes I’ve seen in the era and see how they look on real bodies. I put this all together into an article for Foundations Revealed, the sister site to Your Wardrobe Unlock’d. The article just went live this evening — check it out, if you’re a subscriber!
Article About the Eugenie Project
Bridget and I recently wrote an article detailing our experiences with making the Eugenie project for the Silicon Web Costumers Guild’s newsletter. The issue is now open to anyone, so if you’re interested, check it out: go here, click on “Current Issue,” then Vol. 8 Issue 4.
I’m a Published Author: pt. 2
In my professional role I’m an academic librarian with faculty status, which means I get/have to do research. Luckily, I get to do it in an area I’m interested in (fashion in social history)! I’ve just had a scholarly article published, the second one to look at the role of fashion among the elite women who went to Smith College in the 1920s (you can read about the first article here).
This one is called “Fashioning the College Woman: Dress, Gender, and Sexuality at Smith College in the 1920s” and is in the most recent (March 2009) issue of the Journal of American Culture. Basically, it looks at the discussion/debates around the “meanings” of women’s fashion in the 1920s and how Smith students interpreted those meanings — looking at issues like the “New Woman” (fashion as progress) and sexuality (the eroticization of fashion in this era). Good times!
Your Wardrobe Unlock’d – New Online Costuming Magazine
So I’m sorry to have gone totally AWOL around here! There’s been a death in my husband’s family, and during the last few weeks I have had to totally focus on that. It’s been exhausting and sad, but things are getting back to normal… only now I have only TWO WEEKENDS before Costume Con. I HAVE A LOT TO DO. I will stop yelling now. Maybe.
But I did want to give a shout out to a new project that I’ve been excited to participate in – Your Wardrobe Unlock’d, a new online magazine for costumers. It’s a subscription site that’s aimed at all of us costumers who want to improve our skills. I’ve been very impressed with it so far, enough so that I’ve contributed both by answering questions in the “Ask the Experts” column a few months ago, and now writing a series of articles on historical research. Right now, the first of these articles is posted, but there will be probably about three more, and I have to admit that I’m pretty pleased with how they are turning out. One of the things I don’t talk so much about on this site is all of the research I do, both for academic purposes but even more so for costuming purposes. I feel like I’m really distilling what I’ve learned over many years and degrees, so while I don’t mean to toot my own horn, I do think it’s a strong contribution and will be of interest to (hopefully?) many. Anyway, check out the site and see whatcha think.
Now I will go back to panicking about Costume Con sewing!
I’m a Published Author!
In my other life I’m an academic librarian with faculty status, which means I get/have to do research in order to get tenure. I’ve published a few fashion-related things (encyclopedia essays, book reviews) but I’ve just finally published my first REAL publication, a research journal article! So if you’re into what I’m into (the history of fashion from a social/cultural studies perspective), and you want to wander by a local library or randomly buy a copy from the Costume Society of America’s website, check out my article: “A Style All Her Own”: Fashion, Clothing Practices, and Female Community at Smith College, 1920-1929 in the 2005 (yes, just published) issue of Dress.
This article looks at fashion in the 1920s among women’s college students (at Smith College), looking both at how they acquired fashion (clothing and hair services) and the role that fashion played in the campus community. In case you’re interested, here’s the abstract: “An examination of the clothing practices and the role of fashion in the lives of Smith College students illustrates that despite cultural and conceptual changes, these women had more in common with prior generations than may have been previously assumed. While students did avail themselves of the new widespread accessibility of mass-produced fashion goods and spent time and money on hair services, professionally sewn and home-sewn garments still made up a large portion of their wardrobes. Although acquiring fashionable dress served as a tool with which Smith women competed with their peers, it also continued to be one means through which they preserved a supportive female community. As students shopped, sewed and dressed together with their classmates and their mothers, they forged female friendships, sustained family relationships, and created an identity as college women and, more specifically, Smith College women.”
I am working on another article based on the same research, but looking at how Smith College students interpreted the “meanings” of fashion (was it progressive? sexual?) and how that related to their conceptions of their personal and gender identity… but that one is still in peer-review land and will probably take me another three years to publish. I’ll let you know how that one works out!