Author: Arden Kirkland

Arden Kirkland currently splits her work between Vassar College (Costumer for the Drama Department) and numerous other freelance projects in costume history, design, production, and education. She has taught at Vassar, Bard, Marist, Barnard, and the Powerhouse Theatre summer program at Vassar; she was formerly the Costume Shop Supervisor at Bard College and the Assistant Shop Manager at the Costume Shop for the Juilliard School. Arden received her MFA in Costume Design from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. Ever since her undergraduate work at Vassar, she has continued to work as a Co-Curator of the Vassar College Costume Collection, the Drama Department's research collection of historic clothing. Her ongoing effort to create a database of Vassar’s costume collection has led to an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional project entitled “Digital Objects in the Classroom,” to research best practice in the use of digital collections as a teaching resource.
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A Visit from Rebecca Tuite

On Wednesday, April 13, we had a wonderful visit from author Rebecca Tuite, whose book Vassar Style: Fashion, Feminism and 1950s American Media will be published later this year. Ms. Tuite has been a wonderful source of information and enthusiasm on the subject of Vassar dress, and it was a delight to have her here in person!

Speaking to a group of at least a dozen students and faculty members, Ms. Tuite first introduced her research to those who were not already familiar with her work. She described her process at great length, answering questions about her approach to oral history, mass media, and dress. Each of us working on the exhibition for the sesquicentennial had questions for her about how her ladies from the 1950’s relate to the ladies we’re looking at in the earlier years. Certainly there are differences across time, but there are many common threads running through, especially when it comes to the themes we’ve been focusing on lately relating changes in dress to developments in education.

Our discussion certainly gave us all a great deal to think about as our research continues moving forward. We’re very grateful to Ms. Tuite for being so generous with her time and her thoughts!

(I must add that Ms. Tuite was also the bearer of many wonderful gifts – new donations to our collection, from some of the 1950’s alums she’s been in touch with. We’ll post more details about them soon!)

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Exhibition Announcement

publicity image for Fashioning an Education exhibition

“Fashioning an Education: 150 Years of Vassar Students and What They Wore”
May 16-June 12 at the Palmer Gallery, Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)

To celebrate the college’s 150th anniversary, the Vassar College Costume Collection will share student research about the complex role that education has played to influence fashion. This exhibition will showcase student clothing from the 1860’s to 1950’s and photographs of student styles from the 1960’s to today.

opening on Monday, May 16, with a reception from 4-6pm

from May 19 – June 12, open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 1-4pm

additional times:
Tuesday, May 17 and Wednesday, May 18 from 1-4pm
Sunday, May 22 from 12-3pm
Sunday, June 12 from 11-2pm
as well as by appointment by calling (845) 437-5250

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Exhibition Title, continued

We have our title! When we were all together the week before last, we did a very democratic secret ballot vote, choosing from the titles suggested in the previous post and comments. “Dress-quicentennial” came in a close second, but the winner was:

Fashioning an Education

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas, and who voted!

Exhibition announcement coming up next . . .

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Exhibition Title?

Shall we attempt to crowdsource ideas for our exhibition title?

Our theme, so far, is summed up best by a quote from Lucy Maynard Salmon, renowned Vassar history professor of the early 20th century, “A collection of the clothing worn by students at different periods would at least raise, if it did not answer, the question of how far dress has been influenced by education.”

I’ve had a few ideas for titles so far, and I’d love to hear what you think of them. Even better, if you have any ideas for other titles, please share them!

  • What Vassar Wore
  • 150 Years of Vassar Students and What They Wore
  • Fashion / Education
  • Vassar Dress and the Influence of Education
  • Vassar’s Wardrobe
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Welcome!

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!

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Under Consideration

I’m taking a moment today to look over the research everyone has done so far this semester, to see what objects and what stories are emerging as part of our upcoming exhibition.

Please comment below on which of these you think should or shouldn’t be included (and why) and what else you think is missing. Does each object speak to our general theme of the influence of education on fashion? If so, how? If not, is a different theme emerging? Which objects could be grouped together, to complement or contrast with each other?

(Expect some other posts coming soon from students to address in greater detail the emerging narratives of some of these objects)

Here are the objects we’re already working with:


  • 1879 Graduation Dress of Sallie Tucker Blake (Mrs. Josiah Drummond)
    (research by Molly Turpin and Arden Kirkland)

  • 1890’s Day Dress
    (research by Faren Tang)

  • 1900’s bridesmaid’s dress worn by Mrs. C. Lane Goss
    (research by Faren Tang and Holly Hummel)
  • 1935 Class Day Dress of Sarah S. Graham
    1935 Class Day Dress of Sarah S. Graham
    (research by Ceci Cholst)
  • 1950’s Vassar Blazer
    (research by Rebecca Tuite, London fashion history writer, currently focusing on Vassar style in the 1950’s)

and here are some others that I propose might fill out the story:


  • Brown Plaid Day Dress
  • Navy blue wool gymsuit
    Navy blue wool gymsuit; courtesy of Special Collections, Vassar College Library

  • 1924 Class Day Dress of Martha Stockwell Mumford

  • 1926 Gymsuit of Dorothy Reid Kittell VC’26

  • 1925 Daisy Chain Dress of Kathryn Keeler Sherrill VC ’27
  • collage of images of current Vassar student fashion
    (perhaps with help from the team at Contrast, Vassar’s style magazine)

Now, as I add to this list, I find some patterns emerging in my choices – but maybe it’s just me. What patterns do you see? I’ll write more later about the patterns I’m thinking of – after you’ve had a chance to draw some of your own conclusions.

UPDATE: here are some others under consideration, added since this original post:

  • Brown Wool and Velvet Bustle Ensemble
    Brown Wool and Velvet Bustle Ensemble
  • Teal Taffeta Crinoline Ensemble
    Teal Taffeta Crinoline Ensemble
  • Ivory Silk Evening Dress with Floral Motif
    Ivory Silk Evening Dress with Floral Motif

We also really should add in some menswear to represent the post co-ed period . . .

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Sesquicentennial Research Begins

After a very hectic (and snowed-in) start, the spring semester is off and running. We have a wonderful team of faculty, staff, students, and alumnae hard at work preparing for our next exhibition.

This year it is Vassar’s 150th Anniversary, or Sesquicentennial. Our exhibition will celebrate 150 years of Vassar students – and what they wore. We are taking as the starting point for our research a quote from Lucy Maynard Salmon, founding professor of the history department at Vassar,

A collection of the clothing worn by students at different periods would at least raise, if it did not answer, the question of how far dress has been influenced by education.

Salmon, Lucy Maynard. “A Museum of Vassar College.” Vassar Miscellany (November 1911): 45.

How far has dress been influenced by education? Or more simply, has dress been influenced by education? How is this particular to women’s education? What other factors have influenced changes in what we wear, and how do they relate to education? To pose some answers to these questions, we are spending a great deal of time not only with the objects, but also in the Vassar Library’s Special Collections, immersing ourselves in resources related to the women who wore these articles of clothing.

In the coming months, we will use this blog as a place to share our research as it evolves, and to bounce around some theories – and some practical plans for the exhibition. As always, your comments will be very appreciated – they will help us to shape this coming exhibition.

Mark your calendars – the exhibition will be in Vassar’s Palmer Gallery (in the College Center) from mid-May (opening date TBA) through June 12 (the last day of Reunion). We hope to see you there! We will announce specific events (opening reception, guided tours) as they are scheduled.

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Blog Redirection

FYI: As of February 12, 2011, we will no longer be posting directly to the separate blog for the Historic Costume Preservation Workshop (HCPW). Since the bulk of that specific project is over, from now on we will post here, on the general blog for the Vassar College Costume Collection (VCCC).

There are still some HCPW posts yet to come, to share some final details, but we’ll post them in both places.

As a result, we are moving the RSS feedburner feed for the HCPW blog to now point to the VCCC blog.

If you have already subscribed to posts about the HCPW, you shouldn’t have to do anything – you should continue to receive posts from us here at the VCCC blog.

Be looking for some posts about our latest project with the VCCC in the next day or two! If you are subscribed and you don’t get the new posts, please let me know so I can fix it.

-Arden
costumeshop <at> vassar <dot> edu

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» an update from the Vassar College Costume Collection!

It’s time for an update from the Vassar College Costume Collection!

You last heard from me right around our exhibition, “A Glimpse into Vassar’s (Secret) Closet.” So what has happened since then?

When the objects were mounted for the exhibition last spring, I was able to work with Charlie Pane ‘10 to carefully photograph each full costume. Not only did we get high quality full length views of each piece, but each was placed on a turntable and rotated, with a photo taken of each different view. Charlie then worked with these photos to create a QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) file, which allows the viewer to rotate the object and better understand it as if in 3D. Stay tuned for more news about when and where these will be made available online.

Other than that, we haven’t had too much time to work with the collection this fall. Vassar’s new costume designer, Kenisha Kelly, is doing a wonderful job of helping us to recover from the blow of Holly Hummel’s retirement last spring, but we still are very busy with the productions in the Drama Department, and haven’t had much time for research or conservation projects.

But we’ll be sure to make time in the spring! “Glimpse” was such a success that we’re moving forward with another exhibition, from mid-May to mid-June in 2011 (probably 5/13 – 6/15), in the Palmer Gallery in the College Center (same as last year). This will be a part of Vassar’s Sesquicentennial Celebration (150th anniversary), and we will feature clothes that relate to Vassar’s history and to the history of women’s education. We’ll be working on this throughout the spring, so we’ll keep you posted as more details arise.

via pages.vassar.edu

This is a cross-post from http://pages.vassar.edu/hcpw/

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
This work by Vassar College Costume Collection is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.