Friday, October 17, 2008

Musings at our Museum cum Test Kitchen

This week, NYU’s “first year” graduate costume design students came in with Maggie Raywood, (Associate Arts Professor and Costume Shop Manager) to study our 19th century clothes; specifically, 1865, a year which they will be studying for a FULL semester as a special project. Unlike the Metropolitan Museum which they would usually go to, we allowed them to actually TOUCH our authentic items, and the students literally turned dresses inside out to inspect the age-old construction up close. They stayed for over 3 hours, eying everything from men’s and women’s outerwear to corsets and hoops. Inspecting our bloomers, they heatedly debated the age-old question: did women prefer split drawers or closed drawers, and how did they manage when they, er, had to heed nature’s call? We enjoy having schools over and having renewed appreciation for our nearly 150-year-old garments. Helen used to lecture at Parson’s School of Design and always brought authentic items ranging from 1820 to 1970 for students to inspect and sometimes try on. While the NYUers were avidly studying, our interns Jamie and Kim were equally seriously immersed in a competitive taste test of Belgian cookie spread versus Israeli chocolate spread. Jamie holds up the winner while Kim, having no patience to try and find crackers, went directly to fingers!

1 comment:

lisysomna said...

My family always say that I am wasting my time here at net, but I know I am getting experience all the time by reading such pleasant posts.
Plakatwerbung