When I was eighteen years old, I was in a used bookstore in
Los Angeles when I came across my first book of costume patterns made to scale designed
to be used to create historic costumes.
The name of the book was Costume
Design and Making: A Practical Handbook and was originally written by Mary
Fernald & E. Shenton in 1937 the version I was holding was printed in 1967
by Theatre Art Books in New York. It was
quite old, but still in great shape.
I had learned to sew as a little girl and was very familiar
with commercial patterns but for some reason until this moment it had not occurred
to me that I could make my own patterns to create costumes and it had not occurred
to me that I could analyze a painting or a drawing or photograph and create
what I wanted to make without altering an existing commercial modern fashion pattern. I bought that book that day and I still have
it on my bookshelf. In fact, it spurred
a life-long obsession with collecting books on costume design and construction. I can open the book and still see the pencil
lines and calculations from scaling up the patterns from the 1/8 inch
scale. I still have photos of some of
the costumes I created this way.
Two years after I purchased this book I took pattern
drafting and draping classes which cemented my love of construction and how costumes
are made. Eventually, I would pursue a
graduate degree in Costume and Textile Conservation and in the course of those
studies I confess I paid little attention to anything other than how historic
fashion was constructed. I don’t know
what it is about clothing construction past and present that so captivates my
mind since in actuality no other construction enthralls me in the same
way. I do know that I've spent hours and
hours thinking about, analyzing and drawing how costumes and fashions are made
and I will spend countless more doing so.
Lately, I've been amazingly lucky to be spending my
professional time teaching fashion history and construction and though I've taken detours good and bad in my career I always come back to this one true
love.
Below are some pages from my Costume Journal showing an
analysis of an Early Middle Ages (460-1065) woman’s costume.
No comments:
Post a Comment