Vassar College Costume Collection

Welcome to our blog for the Vassar College Costume Collection. This is where we share news about the collection and talk about our research process. We love your feedback – to comment on a post or read other comments, click on the heading of the post where it says “No comments,” “1 Comment,” etc. Thanks for visiting!

As Vassar begins Spring Break, I’m finally able to carve out a moment to catch you all up with our plans for our next exhibition. We’re not sure of our opening date yet (we’re hoping to open during Senior Week as we did in 2010 and 2011, to be open for Commencement, by May 26) but we know we’ll be open for Reunion, which is from June 7-9 this year.

When considering what to exhibit, I realized that this would be the reunion year for several of our recent donors – and it will also be my own 20th reunion! In 2007, we received a donation of 4 wedding dresses from the same Vassar family – 3 generations of dresses from 4 alums. This grouping alone is fascinating, allowing us to compare the stylistic changes over 52 years in the culture of one family. The middle two dresses of the four were worn by Mary Lee Hartzell ’53 and Ellen McPhillips Baumann ’63. As this will be their reunion year, it seems like the perfect time to display their dresses, along with other interesting wedding dresses we’ve collected over the years.

I have to admit I’ve been hesitant to do a wedding dress exhibition. In my work with our collection, I try very hard to get students past the stage of “Oh! Look at the pretty dresses!” and into the stage of examining such objects as evidence of cultural history, evidence of women’s lives. With wedding dresses, it’s particularly hard to get past the “it’s so pretty” stage, and as hard as it is to get the students working on the exhibit past that, it will be even harder to get the exhibition’s fleeting audience past that.

So, can we find a way to use these “pretty dresses” to examine the changes in weddings and marriage over the last 159 years (the earliest dress we plan to show is from 1854)? Can we appreciate the beauty of these dresses, yet not let that blind us to the complications of the cultural ideals they represent?

As we develop this exhibition, we’d love to hear your feedback. We’re just starting to reach out to the donors of the dresses, and some students are hoping to conduct oral history interviews with the women who wore the dresses, or their relatives. The stories that they provide will determine how this exhibition unfolds. We’re also working on identifying the “missing pieces” – objects that are not in our collection, but that we’d like to seek as loans or donations, to diversify the exhibition. We’ve realized one of the easiest ways to do this is to collect photographs from members of the Vassar community, from a variety of weddings, to showcase diverse traditions and innovations.

So . . .

What did you wear to your wedding?

The Vassar College Costume Collection is seeking photographs and narratives from Vassar community members to showcase a variety of clothing worn for weddings. We are interested in images of both traditional and non-traditional weddings, from diverse ethnic and religious traditions, and we’re particularly hoping to include examples from same-sex weddings.

With your permission, we may display some of the photographs and stories as a part of our upcoming exhibition of wedding outfits, for this year’s Reunion. Email your photos to costumeshop@vassar.edu, or mail copies of your photos to the Vassar College Costume Collection, Box 734, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604. Please include a brief narrative about your wedding and what you wore. Please note that we may not be able to display all the photos received, depending on the number of submissions, and we will not be able to return photos that are mailed to us, but all photographs and stories will inform our research and will be greatly appreciated!

In the weeks to come, we’ll be sharing some of our research, along with some of our process for developing the exhibition. We’ll also be reaching out to you for more feedback – whether you’re an alum/current student/married/unmarried/etc., we’d love to know what you think about the traditions/innovations in weddings and marriage that these dresses represent.

Our Second Annual French Fashion Show event at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was a great success!  The folks at Contrast magazine, who co-sponsored the event with us (along with the FLLAC Student Advisory Committee, the Department of French and Francophone Studies, and VC Soundsystems) have posted about the event on their blog, with some great photos and a very cute highlights video.

From French Fashion Show

Meanwhile, here are some of our own photos from the event. We had 6 models wearing historic reproduction fashions from the Drama Department Costume Shop, as styled by Emily Selter. They were joined on the runway by contemporary models wearing related looks. Commentary for the historic looks was written by Sarah Cooley, Rebecca Endicott, Alexandra Figler, Ruby Pierce, and Emily Selter and narrated on the runway by Alycia Anderson and Ali Dillilio.

From French Fashion Show

From French Fashion Show

From French Fashion Show

We also displayed two dresses from our historic collection, in the back gallery at the FLLAC. On the left is our Cream Satin Dress with Blue-Green Beading and Sash (#VC1992024), which was designed by Jeanne Lanvin for the summer of 1921 (see more of this dress on our collection website). On the right is our Light Green Silk Gown with Lace (#VC1992034) from 1910-1914 (designer unknown – see more of this dress on our collection website).

From French Fashion Show

From French Fashion Show

Many thanks to Francine Brown and Joann Potter from the FLLAC, and Susan Hiner from the Department of French and Francophone Studies, for making this possible! Thanks also to all the models who participated: Akaina Ghosh, Margot Mayer, Nicole Alter, Emma Bird, Rebecca Chodorkoff, Sara Cooley, Brendan Counihan, Matt Dowling, Kevin Gish, Emma Goodwin, Julia Kawai, Simone Levine, Taylor Pratt, Jay Resit, Grace Sparapani.

All the images shown in this post are from the Vassar College Drama Department Research Collection of Historic Clothing and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can also view these images directly in Picasa; from there you can see a full screen view, or download your own copy of an image.

It’s hard to believe it has already been a year since last year’s fashion show at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar. Well, it was such a success that we’re doing it all again!

Once again, we’ll  bring fashion to Thursday’s Late Night at the Loeb, on November 15. The galleries of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center are open late on Thursday, until 9pm, with a fashion show at 7pm and historic clothing on display through the following Sunday. This event is a collaboration between the Frances Lehman Loeb Student Advisory Committee, the Drama Department Costume Shop, the Department of French and Francophone Studies, Contrast magazine, and VC Sound Systems.

Emily Selter ’14 has been leading a group of students to organize this fashion show and display, combining contemporary looks with historic reproductions, and a pair of actual historic dresses on display. Students will narrate the fashion show, providing information about the historical context of French fashion.

We hope you’ll stop by next Thursday night (Nov. 15) if you’re in the area, or come over between Wednesday and Sunday to see the dresses on display. The Loeb is open from 10-5 Tuesday through Saturday, from 1-5 on Sunday, and open late on Thursday, until 9pm. In case you can’t make it, we’ll post some pictures the following week.

We’re pleased to announce that you can now view a digital exhibition representing our 2010 exhibition “A Glimpse into Vassar’s Secret Closet.”

This exhibition was the culmination of the NEH-funded Historic Costume Preservation Workshop in the spring of 2010. During the 2011-12 academic year, student research assistant Julie Fields ’12 compiled photographs from the exhibition and turned them into a digital exhibition. Julie was one of the students who participated in the 2010 workshop, and then we were able to hire her to help build our digital collection, thanks to grant funding from the Mellon foundation for an inter-institutional workshop grant entitled “Digital Archives That Count.”

We hope you enjoy the digital exhibition!

Announcement image for “A Glimpse into Vassar’s Secret Closet: An informal exhibition of final projects from the Historic Costume Preservation Workshop”

Students from Kenisha Kelly’s Drama class “History of Fashion for the Stage” had a wonderful opportunity  to visit the Drama Department’s collection of historic clothing. To begin, historic collection Co-Curators Holly Hummel (Faculty Emeritus) and Arden Kirkland (Costumer for the Drama Department) introduced the class to the collection. Then the class was broken into four smaller groups, and each group focused on studying one object from the collection. Then the class was re-grouped, mixing from the previous groups, so that each student could view all of the objects on display and learn from the other students who had studied each garment in greater depth.

For this exercise, the objects were flat on the table, so that students could examine them inside and out. After asking them to try to imagine what the garments would look like on a body, Arden provided photographs of the garments on mannequins, so that the students could see the silhouette on a body.

 (click on any picture to view it larger)

Did you come and visit for the evening of the French Connection event, at Late Night at the Loeb on November 17?

Models and mannequins together after the French Connection Fashion Show at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

If so, please send us some of YOUR photos – but if not, enjoy these photos of the event. The fashion show included contemporary styles mixed with historic reproductions back to Marie Antoinette, and began with an introduction by Associate Professor of French Susan Hiner, to put French fashion in a historic (and academic) context. We also displayed three dresses from our historic research collection, which stayed up over the weekend.

Three historic dresses from the Vassar College Costume Collection, displayed as a part of the French Connection event at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

You can see more photos in a slideshow at our Picasa site.

There’s also a video in another post here (or on youtube), and more photos of the models (in front of incredible artworks in the Loeb Art Center) on the Contrast blog.

If you missed our fabulous French Connection event at Late Night at the Loeb on November 17, you can watch this video of the fashion show from YouTube. (If you’re in a hurry, fast forward to about 5:10 to see all the models walk at the end). This video comes to us via Contrast, Vassar’s style magazine, one of the co-sponsors of the event. Check out their blog!

I am pleased to announce an exciting fashion event taking place this week at Vassar:

“The French Connection: an evening of art et fashion” brings fashion to Thursday’s Late Night at the Loeb. The galleries of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center are open late on Thursday, until 9pm, with a fashion show at 7pm and historic costume on display through Sunday. This event is a collaboration between the Frances Lehman Loeb Student Advisory Committee, the Drama Department Costume Shop, the Department of French and Francophone Studies, Contrast magazine, VC Sound Systems, and the French Club.

One of our costume shop student employees (who is involved with all of the above organizations) is organizing a fashion show combining contemporary looks with a few historic reproductions. Professor Susan Hiner will introduce the evening with brief comments on the historical context of French fashion. Also, we have three dresses on display from our historic collection: a couture bustle gown from the late nineteenth century by French designer Emile Pingat, an exquisite black and white day dress with a French influence, and a mid-twentieth century striped dress from the Schiap-sport label (Parisian House of Schiaparelli).

We hope you’ll stop by on Thursday night if you’re in the area, or come by over the weekend to see the dresses on display. In case you can’t make it, we’ll post some pictures next week.

I am very pleased to share the final report from our NEH grant funded “Historic Costume Preservation Workshop” at Vassar College in spring 2010.

Including all the appendices, it is rather lengthy, so I certainly don’t expect you to read through every word – but it’s a great reference to flip through and see just how much we accomplished, both during the project itself and in the year since. If you’re interested in doing a similar project at your institution, this could be a handy reference.

Historic Costume Preservation Workshop Final Report

In addition to the narrative about the project, the appendices include the syllabus, sample reports, workshop schedule, links to resources and publicity, and our general preservation assessment report.

Two weeks ago, three of us were able to attend the annual symposium for the Costume Society of America. We had a wonderful time meeting with other like-minded souls.

I traveled to Boston on Wednesday with my colleague Kenisha Kelly, Visiting Assistant Professor of Costume Design in Vassar’s Drama department. We arrived just in time for the evening’s events, including the keynote address by Dr. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Thursday’s events were also packed with thought-provoking presentations, helpful professional development sessions, and wonderful opportunities to meet with other costume enthusiasts from across the country. (I will try to share some of my notes from specific sessions in another post.)

Chloe Boxer ’12 with her research presentation, from the album CSA 2011

We were supposed to be joined on Thursday night by our student, Chloe Boxer ’12 – but alas the stormy weather made for a difficult trip for Chloe. She gets the award for making it to the symposium in spite of many trials and tribulations! After her plane was stuck on the runway in NY for 4 hours, she got off the plane, made her way to Port Authority, and got on a bus bound for Boston, bringing her into the city  in the wee hours of the morning. After only a couple of hours of sleep, she was up and ready to set up her research exhibition. However, after the research exhibitions and lunch, we were back on the road to NY – so all in all, Chloe was only in Boston for less than 12 hours!

But our research exhibitions were very well received, so hopefully it was all worth it. Chloe presented “Skirting the Issue: Explaining the Social Implications of an Early Hobble Dress.” Her posters showed the work she had done to remove theatrical alterations made to a dress in our collection, as a part of last year’s Historic Costume Preservation Workshop (funded by a grant from the NEH). She shared the research she did to date the dress and support her choices in undoing certain alterations. Her research led her to an alternative understanding of the hobble skirt, opposed to the traditional anti-feminist view of this style. She had a constant stream of viewers for her presentation, and received some great feedback.

Arden Kirkland with her research presentation, from the album CSA 2011

I was also very pleased with the attention I received for my presentation “Inside-Out and Online: The Use of Digital Media to Share Multiple Perspectives of Historic Costume.” I shared highlights of several of my digital costume projects, including blogs and our online database, showing how they express my philosophy of “multiplicity” for sharing costume online – multiple views, voices, and levels of context, through the use of multimedia. My work has focused on a low budget do-it-yourself approach to digital costume collections, and I met many people also interested in (or already involved in) digitizing their collections, so this was a very active and fruitful discussion. [I think there's a need for a larger session on this in the future! So many of us are working on these kinds of projects - we need to band together and develop guidelines for best practice so we don't each have to reinvent the wheel.]

All the links related to my presentation, including pdfs of my handout and poster, are at:

http://www.delicious.com/arkirkland/CSA11

Our time at the symposium was a wonderful whirlwind of activity among a nurturing community – a diverse group brought together by our interest in costume. Those, like myself, who are fairly new to this community are very lucky to have the support of more “seasoned” members who are so enthusiastic about sharing their work and introducing us around. The symposium’s planners did a wonderful job, and this was a great event!