Hello and thank you for such wonderful replies to last nights' posting
they were very helpful, structural, ideas to relfect on and things to
look into. I cannot wait for some extra time to explore the links you
sent to me Melanie. Some of them I recognize and have saved in my
favourites but a good many look new to me:)
In terms of what interests me most about costuming, it is very hard to
say and off the top of my head many of the possible directions one may
take with such an artform are equally appealing to me in that knowing
which one to concentrate on most is difficult. I know it is hard to
make steady, let alone good money using costuming as the basis for a
career and if I could that would be wonderful.
The elements I have found to be most rewarding or invigorating thus far
have been in the actual styling of a garment's materials, trims, etc
and developing a design. I enjoy that part moreso than the sewing since
sewing the project is often tedious and time consuming and my skills
not always good and it would be more fun in creating a new piece if I
could complete it before I get tired of seeing it.
I love anything about the Victorian era in way in which I want to jump
through time and live that life and the fashion is an exciting part of
it. Wearing of the garments is not just for special events or
reenacting for me, it is somewhat of my lifestyle at this point and
though it's hard to pull off a full bustle to go to the food store,
there are ways to mix and match modern and old pieces to create an
ensemble that carries the essence of old fashion.
I collect period peices no matter what condition and enjoy the research
alot. I attended Moore College of Art for two years in the fashion
program and my sparked interest in wearing Victorian and Edwardian
clothing coinsided with my first year in the majour, a school costume
collection included. I started reconsidering my interest in joining the
glamorous world of fashion design when it turned out to be fun learning
how to go to stores and steal ideas from other designers to produce
marketable lines of clothing that other people will want to wear and
the notion of working for a large clothing label, probaly doing work
that is somewhat related to the actual design of the clothing really
didn't seem to me like a good career to spend so much money getting
into so I left and have been spending the last three years fine tuning
what exactly I would like to do.
Lately I have become more connected with local historic sites and
museum as well as organizations in hopes that what I know about the era
may be put to some good use and I can share my knoweldge with the
public rather than have it build up in my head and just look pretty
around my house and never be used. Being a tour guide of sorts or
living history actress would really work well for me and my goal now is
to get back into school aand get a degree in art education. Sometimes
you have make choices and I prefer to get a good steady job as soon as
possible than wait many years and spend so much more money to try and
get into a master's program to study costume conservation, which has
become the ideal career path unceratin sucess.
I am here writing to all of you, because there are some things I do
well yet there are so many technical aspects to costuming I have not
developed and to be an accurate costumer who hopes to educate other
people reliably, it is getting those specific details to the clothing
like colours, materials, etc (as mentioned in my post) and getting them
right, that seems so just to be so out of reach to me.
Do I like sewing? Yes I think so, but only when the project is going
well. Maybe finding better ways to sew, or the correct ways in which to
sew the styles of clothing I am working on would be helpful in making
them look less homemade. Obviously there were specific techniques as
available in alot of books that are not in my collection yet for
stitching and assembling different parts of a garment that I have sewn
in whatever way I could come up with just to make it work. In studying
original peices, nearly all of what i have seen is far from perfect in
comparison to our standards for modern commercially made clothing, I
imagine because so many peices were made by local tailors or
seamstresses, or at home.
Through studying them I have learned some great things, like how to
attach hooks and eyes much faster without having to keep cutting and
knotting the thread by using a long continuous stitch. It would be
wonderful to see the differences in the clothing I have and with
couture pieces by Worth to see how they did such things.
Again, I appreciate the information that was passed along and intend to
look into it later. I am off to sleep because in about 13 hours I hope
to visit the museum at FIT for the first time and see what they have.
Have any of you heard about the Perelman center in Philadelphia, the
newest addition to the Philadelphia Musuem of Art? It is a separate
building behind the museum which includes a fashion wing. I was very
disappointed after waiting so many years for an increased display since
the art museum only ever had a collection of maybe 8 gowns that never
seemed to change, dating from the 1850s and 1860s, and the new
collection is very small. They tried to, with limited space, display as
many various examples of fashion history as possible and what they have
is very good quality but many important examples were missing when I
was there for the free grand opening admission.
Take care:)
Justine
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