In the third year of graduate study, our students complete several capstone projects, one of which is the historical reproduction. For this project, they choose a garment from our collection of antique garments, the Costar Archive. They must study the garment closely and then reproduce it as closely as possible. Often the source garment is very ( Read more... )

Recall from my prior post that we had FOUR students present their final creative draping capstone projects this spring, and i've got more photos to share. This project is the final one of their graduate career--it's got to be something with significant structural/material challenges, and these two are our newest-graduated drapers. (The prior two in ( Read more... )

We had FOUR students present their final creative draping capstone projects recently, and i've got some fun photos to share. This project is the final one of their graduate career--it's got to be something with significant structural/material challenges, and they really run the gamut.

( Read more... )

One of the capstone projects of the third year in our graduate program is the historical reproductions. Students choose a garment from our historical clothing archive, CoStar, which they meticulously examine, research its provenance, and reproduce as accurately as possible. They write a paper on their findings, digitize the pattern, and make it ( Read more... )

In the third year, the students in our program produce a collection of projects which constitute the equivalent of a thesis. The creative draping project is one of these, in which students choose a design with some type of structural support inside it, typically something elaborate and bizarre. This year, our two graduates chose projects by ( Read more... )

My class this semester is Masks and Armor, and i've been so busy with the shows in process at work that i have neglected to share some photos of their first project, maquettes, which they completed a couple weeks ago ( Read more... )

Judy Adamson's period pattern class recently presented some fabulous half-form projects, as they moved out of Regency into the fantastical sleeve shapes of the 1830s! These students drape and draft their patterns from research images, generating the piece shapes completely themselves. They replicate the research gown as closely as possible to the ( Read more... )

I see I have quite a bit of catching up to do, as I have a bunch of half-baked posts I need to finish up and share. I will endeavor to get that done over the next couple of days.

First off, I want to extend a hearty congratulations to our newest MFA graduate, Shanna I. Parks. Shanna is off to work as a draper at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. I ( Read more... )

Ballet bodice and tutu construction methods are one area of focus all of our grads are required to explore in their third year as part of their collection of thesis projects [1]. Sometimes these projects are underwritten by ballet companies as part of our Supported Research program; the company will provide the rendering and materials and receive ( Read more... )

I think i've mentioned the creative draping portion of our students' graduate thesis, but i haven't featured photographs and a description before. This year, i'm hoping to showcase some of our graduates' work, to give an overview of exactly what the projects entail. MFA 2009 Amanda Phillips presented hers yesterday and i was able to take my own ( Read more... )