It’s that time of year again in the northern hemisphere: summer is fading into autumn, and school is starting up after a three-month break. American retailers are hopeful for a strong back-to-school season (bts) this year (for many, bts is second only to the Christmas season for keeping them in the black). One of my favorite things about teaching is the annual excuse to go shopping for new fall additions to my wardrobe (not that I need an excuse to go shopping). There is something about fall that makes it festive. The new collections, the September issue of Vogue, the start of the a new school year, the changing of the seasons: This time of year is all about new beginnings for so many of us, whether you work in fashion, have school-age children in your life, or are a student or teacher, yourself.
Personally, having spent most of my life in the classroom, is it any wonder that I measure the years of my life in academic years? When teaching, a January to December calendar sometimes appears to me like two halves of two calendars awkwardly attached to each other like two bookends back-to-back in the center of a shelf of books. Therefore, August is when I crack open a fresh planner (I love my smartphone, but I also love my ink and paper that do not have to be plugged in every couple of days to recharge) and I start a brand new year. And what does a brand new year need? Brand new style, of course.
I took myself back-to-school shopping in anticipation of the start of the new term next week (my syllabi, lesson plans, and powerpoints are ready, and so are my school supplies, how are yours?), and this week I discovered a pleasant little perquisite for both students and teachers: the fashionable student/educator’s discount. I have received the odd 10 to 15% discount at bookstores, and even a local toy store (and not just for educational toys!, but I digress), but there are a handful of fashion retailers who offer discounts to teachers and students. So, in the spirit of back-to-school, here are a few of those discounts, for you, or the students and educators in your life.
Most, but not all, of these discounts are available only in-store. Some retailers require some sort of identification to prove that you are a student or educator. A business card was sufficient for my purchases this week. Some places take me at my word. Expect establishments to vary, and plan to ask wherever you shop, as these discounts are not always widely advertised.
Have I missed any? If you know of others not to be missed, please leave a comment.
Among the many delightful personality traits common among my generation y students is their love of tattoos. While I, personally, am ambivalent on the subject, I still appreciate well executed skin art when I see it.
One of my courses this fall addresses personal and professional appearance. With visible tattoos being common among generation x and y workers (and their bosses), the rules of professional dress and tattoos have changed in recent years.
For this course, I use a textbook last updated in 2004, and although that is relatively old for a fashion text, I use it because it is still very appropriate for the requirements of the course. When it comes to subjects like tattoos, I bring in my own more recent sources, including information on how tattoos are perceived by different generations and those from varying cultural backgrounds, and the process of laser tattoo removal (it turns out it is not nearly as quick and simple as some students think it might be).
I don’t tell my students not to get tattoos, but I do gently recommend that they consider how they may at some point in their lives have a situation (such as employment, for example) in which all ink must be covered all the time. We also talk about health regulations in the tattoo industry (in my region, for example, a business license is all that is required to operate a tattoo studio), and safety when getting a tattoo.
To see images of contemporary tattoos from around the world, the internet is a great resource (pre-internet, your local beach,or tattoo magazines and conventions were your only options). There are several large tattoo photo-sharing websites, but for ease of browsing, quality of photography, and interesting subject matter, my favorite at the moment is flickr. I find sewing related tattoos particularly fascinating. Here are some of the highlights from a recent flickr search.
Image Credits: Each image in this post, while hosted on WornThrough, is linked where it was originally posted on flickr. Additionally, links to the flickr profile pages for the users who posted these photos to flickr are included below.
Paris: City of Light. International fashion capital. Epicenter of fashion as we know it.
This post is for anyone burning with that particular desire often possessed by the aspiring designers in my classrooms: the desire to see Paris. Did I say often? Try always.
Here are some of my favorite resources for fashion scholars preparing for a first visit to Paris, particularly those unfamiliar with the culture and the language, and those travelers making their trip as a pilgrimage to fashion’s holy city.
General Travel Guides
For a general travel guide, I prefer Rick Steves’ Paris. He updates it yearly, and while Steves is solidly embraced by baby boomers, the guide is also hip enough for generation y and good for families with children of all ages. A great companion is his pocket-sized French Phrase Book and Dictionary.
French Culture
If you are unfamiliar with French culture, start studying. Now. Knowing something about the culture and history of the great nation of France will make all the difference in terms of how much you get out of your trip. You will see more, learn more, and appreciate more, which of course is why you are going there in the first place. One book I recommend is Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong by Canadian and American husband and wife, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow.
Museum Exhibits
You may want to (make that should) plan your trip around an important exhibition, or simply visit as many fashion exhibits as possible. This year, until August 29, the Petit Palais, the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts, is hosting the world’s first large Yves Saint-Laurent exhibition, The World of Yves Saint-Laurent. Check the Fashion and Textile Museum at the Musée des Arts décoratifs at the Louvre, and the Musée Galliera (the City of Paris Fashion Museum), for their current shows, and visit the Pierre Cardin Museum.
Shopping in Paris
If you are going to Paris to shop (and if you are reading WornThrough, I imagine you are at least halfway considering it), then you will want to know where the various shopping neighborhoods are, plus where to find what you want, and quickly. Think you can plan your tour of the little boutiques of Paris with a google search? Think again. Many, if not most, of Paris’s unique shops do not maintain an internet presence. Therefore, I recommend you pick up more than one guide to the type of shops you seek, with the shops organised by arrondissement. (For those unfamiliar, Paris is divided into municipal districts, or arrondissements, numbered from 1 to 20.)
Vintage Paris Couture: The French Woman’s Guide to Shopping: It would probably take me a whole month of nonstop shopping to see every place in this guide. It covers all levels of the market, from thrift or charity-style shops, to antique eighteenth-century clothing, to twentieth-century designer couture, including the Paris flea markets. Price levels are given for the shops covered. There are so many great photos in this book that I recommend you buy it even if you are not planning a trip any time soon. It makes a great smaller-sized coffee-table book for you armchair travelers. This book has a hard cover, so I recommend photocopying the pages with info on shops you are interested in, take the copied pages with you, and leave the book at home. Lighter baggage on the way there, more room for your purchases on the way home.
Paris: Made by Hand: 50 Shops Where Decorators and Stylists Source the Chic & Unique: I wanted to go to practically every shop in here. It leans towards hand crafted items for gifts and interior design, yet also covers shops with the raw materials for your own chic creations, plus apparel, including children’s apparel. Another one with great photos, it also includes some ateliers, or studios. Also happens to be paperback and relatively compact, meaning you can put it in your day bag with your phrase book.
Chic Shopping Paris: Yet another almost-pocket-sized book with great photos, and like the above, shops organised by arrondissement. Covers a variety of boutiques, including apparel and accessories, in addition to fine china, linens and flatware. In short, everything you need for an elegant Paris pied-à-terre.
Bon Voyage!
Now that you have your recommended reading, here is a brief clip from a 1986 film by William Klein, featuring three models dressing (and undressing) in the popular fashions of the twentieth century, decade by decade. They look like they are probably wearing museum pieces, which should make your inner historian cringe, but try to enjoy it for what it is, an amusing romp.
For those of you who have traveled, studied, lived, and worked in Paris, what can you recommend? How did you get there? What are your favorite places in the city? What, in your opinion, should every fashion student be sure to see?
I have recently come to the conclusion that I am hopelessly and quite happily addicted to collecting books. My book shelves are filled to overflowing, some are filled two-deep, and I continue to make weekly trips to the library and regular stops at my favorite used book shops. Am I delusional about the amount of time available in any given day to devote to reading? Yes and no. During the school year, I do not have a lot of time for what my fifth-grade teacher called ‘pleasure reading.’ This summer, however, I have discovered many pleasurable hours free to devote to catching up on reading Vogue magazine, W, Women’s Wear Daily, the latest fashion textbooks, background reading for my discipline, and those books read just for enjoyment’s sake.
One of the first books I picked up this summer was The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna, and I have concluded that there is very little of Wilde’s life that was ever secret, but I have found the book to be a useful introduction to the life of Wilde, as it is a chronology of events in his personal life during the writing of each of his major works, and an in-depth look at his trials and imprisonment and the Victorian view of male homosexuality. On the subject of fashion specifically, there is even some good basic coverage of the origin and meaning of the wearing of green carnations, and the general wearing of the color green by gay men in Europe in the nineteenth century.
Next came Christian Lacroix: The Diary of a Collection by Patrick Mauries, which I recently received as a gift (lucky me!). The book is a visual treat, and is essentially a scrapbook of Lacroix’s Spring/Summer 1994 Haute Couture collection, with full details on his inspiration and design processes behind it, including his sketches and excellent photos of antique textiles and modern fabric swatches. Quality images of the finished looks (rather than in-progress-mostly-finished-polaroids) would have made the book complete.
Coming up on my reading list are two textbooks, Fashioning Society: A Hundred Years of Haute Couture by Six Designers by Karl Aspelund and Menswear: Business to Style by Michael P. Londrigan (to be read in between comic books and graphic novels from my local library, of course). Leave me a comment and let me know your suggestions for summer reads, and perhaps I will cover one in a future post.
Going hand in hand with my love of dress history and clothing construction is my interest in historically inspired costumes, and the use and wear of those costumes in leisure activity. If you have seen my post on the Great Dickens Christmas Fair of San Francisco, California, you have some idea of an historical era being reenacted for education and entertainment. Other examples are American Revolutionary War, American Civil War (in and outside the US), medieval Europe, Renaissance Europe, and various decades of the 20th century. In addition to historical eras, there is also the enormous realm of cosplay, wherein cosplayers dress as their favorite film, animation, or comic book characters. The number of students I have interested in constructing apparel for these various pastimes grows every term, and I think it is as much fun for me as it is for them to see their ideas come to life, as they learn to sew and make something they truly can not buy ‘off the rack.’
Today’s web site is one which focuses on the reproduction of clothing of a very specific time and place, 16th century Europe. By Drea Leed, The Elizabethan Costume Page is a great starting place for anyone wanting to reproduce women’s, men’s and children’s clothing of the era (do not let the early 1990s-style title of the site deter you, it is kept up to date). Leed is the author of The Well-Dress’d Peasant: 16th Century Workingwoman’s Dress (Partizan Press, 2003), which appears to currently be out of print, but is certainly on my personal wish list.
The web site, in addition to containing numerous thoroughly researched articles and papers authored by Leed, also has an abundant collection of well organised and worthwhile links to sources for even more information. If you want to see period images of members of specific social classes of particular nationalities, this web site will help you find them, particularly those with the best depictions of clothing for those wishing to reproduce them, as in paintings with clear details, such as seam placement and the various layers of clothing worn.
One of my favorite things on the site is the Elizabethan Smock Pattern Generator. This can even be used by those with little or no sewing experience. The instructions tell precisely how to measure your body so that you can enter your measurements (bust, around the bicep, waist, hip, etc.) into the Pattern Generator and voila! you immediately get a custom pattern made to your measurements. This one, I can say I have used with success.
If any readers are historical costume buffs, leave me a comment and let me know your favorite eras and resources, for possible inclusion in future posts.
Six weeks ago, I wrote about the textile design history and global textile arts focus in my basic textiles course. Several readers expressed interest in my sources for information on the wide array of topics I cover, so today I will share a few of them.
On the subject of oriental hand-knotted carpets, I like to show an episode of a 1975 BBC television series called Tribal Eye with Sir David Attenborough. Episode five, “Woven Gardens,” focuses on the nomadic Qashqai tribe of Iran and carpet-making methods and traditions.
For many years this film was only available on 16mm film, and more than one institution I have taught at had their copy of the film copied onto vhs tape or dvd to be more compatible with typical classroom technology. Today, the 51-minute film is available for download from several sites. Currently, you can watch the film in its entirety at Magic of Light, Mystery of Shadows, the blog of textile artist M. Joan Lintault.
For an excellent overview of all (and I do mean all) major textile techniques in one text, I recommend 5,000 Years of Textiles (Five Thousand Years of Textiles) by Jennifer Harris. I have the 1993 hardcover edition, which is very good, in terms of depth of subject material, and quality and quantity of illustrations. The 2004 edition is available in paperback for around US $20. Next time around, I would choose to require this title in addition to my basic textiles text. It would have made my work this semester so much easier.
Are there any particular eras, regions, or techniques you would like to learn more about? Leave a message in the comments and I will be sure to share with you more of my favorite resources.
This post is a follow-up to a previous post on the concept of testing students in small groups.
My basic textiles course recently had their second mid-term examination, giving me another opportunity to test the group test-taking method I experimented with earlier this term. My favorite part: as they worked on the exam in their small groups, I was able to listen to the students’ discussions of the merits of potential answers to test questions. Having the opportunity to eavesdrop on their entire thought processes is invaluable. I heard them teaching another, jogging each others’ memories, and reasoning things out with one another in their discussions.
“Remember there was that one picture? Remember the Oberkampf painting?”
“He was the painter.”
“No, he was in the painting. He was in the town of Jouy. He owned the factory.”
“Chinoiserie. The Chinese version of toile? Asian toile? The European interpretation?”
There were a few things I chose to do differently this time around, the first being that we did not play the Jeopardy-style quiz game in class as a means for preparation for the exam and I did not have the students write sample test questions. I instead allowed the students time to meet in groups and studyat the end of the three class periods preceding the exam.
Second, when lecturing on world textiles and textile design history, I gave the students a hand-out with key historical and design terms for note taking, as most of the material was not covered in the text. It was essentially several pages of key terms with blank space for notes, plus a few examples of historical motifs. I found that when I listed terms from the hand-out on the exam and asked students to define them, their recall was surprisingly accurate.
As far as the results of the exam go, the average score went down from 88% to 86%, when compared to the previous exam. When asked their opinion, many students said they found this exam more challenging than the first. This may be due to the complexity of the material, being that I was testing them on further advanced topics, relative to the introductory concepts tested on in the earlier exam. Alternatively, they may have found the exam harder because they did not have the opportunity to write sample questions and play the quiz game in preparation. In a class discussion, consensus seemed to indicate that both contributing factors were considered reasonable explanations for the lower test scores.
One issue which may be of concern is whether poorly prepared students unfairly earn higher test scores by relying on the strength of their better prepared team members, but I find that those who would get lower scores if they had tested alone still tend to get lower scores in a group setting. Apparently there is truly no substitute for being properly prepared for an exam.
At this point, I am liking the group test taking approach, however, for their final exam, I plan to hybridize it with the traditional solo test taking method. Their final exam of the course will have some elements for which I will require individual, not group, answers. I would like to assess the students individually, in addition to asking for a little self-reflection on their parts, by asking them for examples of new information they learned from their group mates during the test taking process. I will be sure to keep you posted, and let you, dear readers, know the results as soon as I have them. In the meantime, I have a fierce match of fashion jeopardy planned for next week’s final class meeting.
This week, my textiles students learned about stain removal with some practical experiments.
Supply List:
pre-laundered fabric swatches
ketchup, chocolate syrup, mustard, and vegetable oil
powdered laundry detergent, liquid laundry detergent, and club soda
mason jars, teaspoons and tablespoons, paper plates, and plastic cups
water (access to a sink is preferred)
These are the instructions I gave the class:
One stain to each fabric swatch: ketchup, chocolate syrup, mustard, or vegetable oil.
One cleansing agent at a time: powdered detergent, liquid detergent, or club soda.
No minimum number of swatches (just do as many as possible in the time allowed).
Use all three cleansing agents.
Choose your own stains.
Record the steps of your procedure as you go. You will hand in your notes at the end of class.
Apply stain to fabric.
If using liquid or powdered detergent,
Half tablespoon of liquid or the powdered detergent
Fill jar 2/3 with water
Stir with teaspoon
If using club soda, add club soda only, choose your own quantity and record the amount used in your notes.
Put the stained fabric in the jar
Replace lid and shake for one minute
Rinse fabric in the sink, lay it out on a paper towel to dry. Label it by stain and cleansing agent used.
Compare results and record your results in your notes.
The results were overwhelmingly in favor of the liquid detergent. The students found the club soda to be the least effective of the three agents used to clean their samples. Next time I do this activity, I plan to:
use grape juice for staining
put the oil on colored fabric samples, instead of the white ones we used this week, so the stains will be easier to see
use cornstarch and liquid dishwashing detergent to remove oil
Have any of you done something similar in a classroom setting? What worked best for you?
This post is the first in a series of posts on the textile design and history topics essential in an introductory textiles course.
As many of you already know, one of my courses this term is a basic fiber and textiles course. This one has presented several enjoyable challenges thus far. One, it has been a couple of years since I last taught this course; two, I used a different textbook last time; and three, the official course outline has me deviating from your typical introductory textiles course. Truly, all three are welcome challenges. After all, they just make my job that much more interesting–not that what I do is ever in danger of losing my interest—maybe after 40 or 50 years, but even then, I doubt it.
Have I ever mentioned that I am a graduate of the program I now teach in? It was, as I like to tell my students, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and smoking was still allowed on campus, that I, myself, sat in their places, yea, in that very room, and took my first basic textiles course. Since that time, the room has been remodeled, my mentors have retired, and yet, I have available to me many of the instructional materials that were used when I was a student.
Several years ago, I was preparing a lecture on wool at a previous institution, ten years after taking my first textiles course, and I thought to myself, “Man, I wish I had that picture of the model astride the merino sheep,” an image my teacher showed in lecture when I was a student. Just another one of those moments when I again confirm for myself, that, yes, I am a born professor, if ever there was one.
Can I tell you just how overjoyed I was to find that photo in my current classroom? Did I put it in my lecture on wool this year? You bet I did.
See? The merino is a darn wooly breed of sheep. It’s wrinkled like a sharpei. And you just know that the sheep in the picture has never been washed in its life…well, maybe once a year, but only after being shorn…and that model is wearing a micromini. At least she’s wearing hose. It could have been worse.
But enough of vintage models suffering for fashion so future generations of fashion students could learn about fine quality specialty wools and animal husbandry.
I mentioned earlier that my official course outline is atypical. What makes it unique is a special focus on textile history. Typically, as this course has been taught in the past, several weeks are devoted to the coverage of world textiles and textile design history. Now that I am the instructor, I am covering most, if not all, of the topics I was taught, plus others I find relevant.
We start with the Pazyryk rug, cover Greek and Roman motifs, travel to North Africa for Coptic textiles of the 5th and 6th centuries CE, and then work our way through European textiles, including eastern Europe. I also cover sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South American, and Middle Eastern carpets. When this class ends, my students will know the differences between a kirman and a kilim, bobbin lace and battenburg lace, an Arras tapestry and a Willam Morris, and a mola and a Hmong reverse appliqué.
How many of you dear readers were exposed to any of the above in your fashion education? In your introductory textiles course, what textile history, if any, was covered, other than Richard Arkwright and Samuel Slater? In other schools, I have seen this type of material relegated to another course, sometimes mentioned in a history of dress course, other times in another design history course never offered because no one can be found to teach it. Other times, this information is left out of the curriculum altogether. My program, on the other hand, is one of the lucky ones. It is important to know where you’ve come from, now isn’t it?
Photo credits:
Top: From Weaving a Tale by Michael Sherer, Central American Travel Examiner
In my last post on teaching fashion at college level, I discussed how I instructed students to write quiz-game-style questions to be used in a class game-playing exercise designed to prepare them for an upcoming exam. Here is the update to that post and the results of the exam for which the game was a review tool.
Having the students’ write their game questions and play the game in class eased both my work of writing the new exam and the students’ task of preparing for the exam in a number of ways which I discussed in my last teaching post. As you probably noticed in that last post, I mentioned administering the exam in an unusual way. The choice I made was to allow the students to take the exam in small groups.
For this small group exam, I allowed them to select their own teams, or work alone if they chose (which no one chose to do this time), and I required them to write on their exams, in addition to their own name, the names of all of their team members (having the team members’ names there was not related to their exam scores, it was for my later analysis). I instructed the students to freely discuss the exam questions and possible answers with their team members. Many of them chose to work in the teams in which they had played the fashion Jeopardy-style game the week before. As with a typical exam, I required that all electronic devices be turned off (or in silent mode) and stowed out of sight, along with course lecture notes and copies of the course text.
The format of the exam was multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank. The class had approximately one hour to complete 50 questions valued at 2 points each. Many of the teams finished before the end of the exam period, which is not unusual when I give an exam of this format to students individually. The immediate feedback I received at the end of the exam period was largely positive.
In grading the exams, I was surprised to discover:
no single student received a perfect score on the exam
the average score was 88.9% (lower than I had pre-supposed)
the teams did not come to a consensus for each exam question
After the students received their graded exams back, the feedback they had included that they were pleased that they and their team members did not all have identical exams, seeing it as an indication that they completed their exams with some individuality, and that the group approach eased the anxiety of sitting for an exam (I often have students with documented or undocumented text anxiety, which significantly impairs their ability to take a 50-question exam in a typical class period). A few also admitted to having learned new information while taking the exam with their team. Learning? While taking an exam? Wonderful. Assessment and learning can, and often should, happen at the same time.
My next task will be to counterbalance the weight of the exams against solitary projects in order to counteract any possible grade inflation, as 88.9% is a high average. My rationale behind the group exam format was to enhance student learning, build small group communication skills, build community in a small program, and assess students’ knowledge of course material. Overall, these factors contribute to student success. Is that not the whole purpose of education? I think it is.
What do you dear readers, former students, and teachers and professors, think of the concept of a group exam? Have you experienced this as a student? Have you administered this as an instructor? Leave me a comment and let me know.
. St Martin’s Press: New York, NY.
by Canadian and American husband and wife, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow.
: It would probably take me a whole month of nonstop shopping to see every place in this guide. It covers all levels of the market, from thrift or charity-style shops, to antique eighteenth-century clothing, to twentieth-century designer couture, including the Paris flea markets. Price levels are given for the shops covered. There are so many great photos in this book that I recommend you buy it even if you are not planning a trip any time soon. It makes a great smaller-sized coffee-table book for you armchair travelers. This book has a hard cover, so I recommend photocopying the pages with info on shops you are interested in, take the copied pages with you, and leave the book at home. Lighter baggage on the way there, more room for your purchases on the way home.
: I wanted to go to practically every shop in here. It leans towards hand crafted items for gifts and interior design, yet also covers shops with the raw materials for your own chic creations, plus apparel, including children’s apparel. Another one with great photos, it also includes some ateliers, or studios. Also happens to be paperback and relatively compact, meaning you can put it in your day bag with your phrase book.
Covers a variety of boutiques, including apparel and accessories, in addition to fine china, linens and flatware. In short, everything you need for an elegant Paris pied-à-terre.
by Neil McKenna, and I have concluded that there is very little of Wilde’s life that was ever secret, but I have found the book to be a useful introduction to the life of Wilde, as it is a chronology of events in his personal life during the writing of each of his major works, and an in-depth look at his trials and imprisonment and the Victorian view of male homosexuality. On the subject of fashion specifically, there is even some good basic coverage of the origin and meaning of the wearing of green carnations, and the general wearing of the color green by gay men in Europe in the nineteenth century.
by Patrick Mauries, which I recently received as a gift (lucky me!). The book is a visual treat, and is essentially a scrapbook of Lacroix’s Spring/Summer 1994 Haute Couture collection, with full details on his inspiration and design processes behind it, including his sketches and excellent photos of antique textiles and modern fabric swatches. Quality images of the finished looks (rather than in-progress-mostly-finished-polaroids) would have made the book complete.
by Karl Aspelund and 
by Michael P. Londrigan (to be read in between comic books and graphic novels from my local library, of course). Leave me a comment and let me know your suggestions for summer reads, and perhaps I will cover one in a future post.
by Amy Butler Greenfield, and 
by Simon Garfield.
by Jennifer Harris. I have the 1993 hardcover edition, which is very good, in terms of depth of subject material, and quality and quantity of illustrations. The 2004 edition is available in paperback for around US $20. Next time around, I would choose to require this title in addition to my basic textiles text. It would have made my work this semester so much easier.
