UNC-CH costume archive expansion: NowesArk nonwestern clothing collection

[labricoleuse]

In this blog, I've often mentioned the CoStar collection, an archive of antique and vintage clothing housed here at UNC-Chapel Hill (hosted by our graduate program, curated by program head Judy Adamson, and jointly utilized as a research tool by the Department of Dramatic Art and PlayMakers). CoStar has a continually-expanding online presence in

Comments

[silentq]

Wow. I have tears in my eyes from the beauty of one of the dresses. I'm bookmarking the site and going through it exhaustively this weekend. :) Thanks for posting the link!

[labricoleuse]

You're welcome!

Just out of curiosity, which dress was it?

[silentq]

The brown bustle ensemble.
Is there an easy way to tell which items have patterns?

[labricoleuse]

Unfortunately, there isn't at present, beyond clicking on ones you like and looking. That's one of the things on my list of ideas for improving the site--a page linked in that masthead navbar with a crosslinked table on it listing garments with patterns, reproductions, and analyses.

Basically, the patterns are generated when a student chooses a garment to be her/his historical reproduction thesis--s/he then writes the analysis, generates the pattern, and creates the reproduction. So, there's no rhyme or reason to which ones have them--you could surmise that when perusing, maybe the "cooler looking" ones would be more likely to have patterns, since a garment with a pattern has one because it caught someone's eye and was appealing enough to them to want to spend time doing the reproduction/analysis on it.

[wodhaund]

Thank you thank you thank you! I've loved the CoStar collection since I first saw you link to it (there's a jacket in there I've quite fallen in love with and want to reproduce), so these new links are even more wonderful!

[labricoleuse]

You know, i KNOW that one of our previous students, Reina Alirez (MFA '07), did that reproduction, because i posted about dyeing the wool for it, here: http://labricoleuse.livejournal.com/14082.html

...and yet, neither her paper nor her pattern is on the site. I'm compiling a list of feedback and omissions and such for just this reason.

[wodhaund]

Oh wonderful! I hadn't seen the wool-dyeing post before, so that will be very helpful when I go to make my own, thank you!

[labricoleuse]

I'm hoping too that we'll be able to locate and add her work soon as well (then you'd have a gridded pattern to work from).

I think one of the problems with maintaining continuity, cohesiveness, completeness, etc. on an massive ongoing documentation project like this one is the high turnover of folks in charge of the day-to-day. Whoever has the "CoStar assistantship" winds up devoting one, maybe two years to the job while they're in school, then it all changes hands. I'm assuming this kind of staffing fluctuation is why stuff slips through the cracks, like Reina's missing pattern for this blue jacket, or like in the comment below, spikywheel's name not being attached to the paperwork on her repro.

[spikywheel]

The pattern online for the 1902 velvet bolero is my pattern. I made that dress as part of the graduate program and have the photos of the dress to prove it.

Any way I can have my name attached to my work on the website?

[labricoleuse]

I will definitely pass that on to the incoming CoStar research assistant. There are several patterns and papers on there for which no name is associated--not sure why, or at what point those were added or by whom. Can you email me at the address in the post (last para) exactly how you want to be credited, so i can forward it to the appropriate person? Thanks!

[labricoleuse]

Also, if you want to, attach your repro photos to the email as well and we can add them to the page, too! It'd be great to see how yours turned out. It's a lovely source garment!

[textileowl]

Ooh fantastic! I wish OSU Historic Costume Collection was accessible online. They've implemented a new database since I interned there in order to allow access online but it's slow going.

One of these days I'll spend all day searching this collection, but not until after we are finished moving!

[devikat]

OMG Yum! Even with just a quick look I can tell that this will be useful. I can't wait to go through and see which ones all have patterns.

In a similar topic, do you have an links/previous entries talking about patterning vintage textiles like these? I don't have the means to take any kind of classes right now, but I have a few deteriorating pieces that I wanted to document/pattern, but I've never done anything like this before. Do you have any leads that I could start with?

[devikat]

Ooops... meant to be a general reply. :op

[labricoleuse]

I don't actually have any posts of that sort of my own--i'm not at all involved in the teaching of the patterning/drafting/draping/tailoring courses here. The most info on those i've put in here have been the photoposts showing projects for Period Patterning classes.

With these particular garments, i don't even have a succinct answer for their process, as it's part of their thesis and the intent is for them to draw from all their prior experience and the knowledge of patterning/draping/tailoring/drafting they've gained over the three years of study.

That said, there are a couple sites that offer directions on a couple of methods for taking a pattern from an extant garment without disassembling it, so hopefully those will help you with your project! Here are the links:

This site is the better of the two, and describes a method using interfacing as a medium.

This article has a super-brief description of a method using pins and paper, and tracing/guesstimating.

Good luck!