Lighting is the costume...

Here are some photos I took backstage at Thursday's tech rehearsal for Alwin Nikolais's Crucible, restaged by Alberto (Tito) Del Saz and Peter Kyle with funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces grant.

Nikolais = Genius. Amazing and breathtaking.

I just wanted to remind everyone about Time Lapse Dance's upcoming 10th anniversary performances at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Feb. 19th-21st, 2010.

The photo is dancer-aerialist Rachel Salzman rehearsing for Jody Sperling's "Satellite" at the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics. (Photo by David Gonsier) You can read about this project and more Time Lapse Dance fun in my previous post. Please come!

Clothing and Politics

All clothing is political. How we dress is probably the clearest expression of who we think we are, how we identify with others, and what we aspire to be. Clothing is the means by which we determine if someone is more or less powerful than us and what their values are. Where we buy our clothes, what we demand from them, and how we reinstate or challenge the conventions of what is 'acceptable' within our social milieu are all determined by our position in the network of human relationships on both a local and global scale and how we view the world. It is true that 'fashion' complicates the issue by constantly updating the sartorial codes that allow us to interpret a person's clothing correctly - but still, most of us average folks are pretty darn good at making accurate judgments of who a person is by what they are wearing.

A current exhibit at the Museum at F.I.T. examines the most overt examples of the relationship between fashion and politics. It would be a misleading to say that most of the examples are the kind of everyday political statements we all make with our clothes (that might not be the most exciting show) but still, its a good introduction. People should check it out - its free!

On Exhibit at the NYPL for the Performing Arts...

Recently two events have made me think that I should just hang it up and retire while the going is good. The first event was that for the first time in my 10+ years of designing at Marymount, all students scheduled for fittings showed up in a single day - at their scheduled time!! Usually, approximately 1/3-1/2 simply 'flake' and I end up chasing them around the school, sending desperate emails, and resorting to idle threats like, "If you don't come to fittings, I can't make you a costume."

The second, even more improbable event, is that one of my designs is now hanging at Lincoln Center in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of an exhibit titled Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance. Not only is it displayed, it has a place of honor - it is the one hooked up on the rotating contraption welcoming visitors to the exhibit! And there it will hang until May 2nd, 2009 - among far better costumes by women who are my idols - an achievement more unexpected than 20 students showing up for fittings in a single day!

If you are a costumer, if you are student of design, or even if you just love to sew, this exhibit is worth seeing because you can get up close and personal with all of the garments to check out the techniques. By the way, the costume of mine on display is called the "White Peacock," which I wrote about in a prior post. It is a gown with a 'tail' that converts into a cape...but only the tail/cape is hanging in the exhibit. Below is a picture of Jody Sperling bringing the costume to life - and imparting the true magic. I'll also try to dig out my sketches and post them later if I can find them.

Conference Call

I felt lucky to be able to attend the recent conference The Golden Age of Gotham’s Clothing Industry: Unraveling an Enterprise, not only because I feel academics should use more puns in their titles (being sarcastic), but also because it was actually very, very interesting. It seems a little too late to give a full review, but I can say that the paper presented by Richard Greenwald and Bernard Smith really summarized nicely why this topic of study is important to historians. Not only did the garment industry at one time employ an astounding 33% of New Yorkers, but the history of clothing manufacture also resists the traditional business history paradigm of modernization. The forces of fashion made rationalization of production methods difficult, and constant style innovations made product standardization impossible. Then as now, it was the availability of cheap labor and not improvements in production methods that kept clothing prices so low. Another highlight of the event was Regina Blaszczyk’s paper on what she calls “fashion intermediaries” – those nameless, faceless multitudes who design products for the masses. In striking comparison to the ‘tastemakers’ that cater to an elite clientele, these proletarians of the creative economy are the people who really shape the aesthetic landscape.

Speaking of tastemakers, the graduate program in Fashion and Textile Studies at F.I.T. is hosting a symposium titled Focus on Fashion Journalism on Saturday, May 12, 2007. Here is the description:

Editors, writers, art directors, web designers, illustrators, photographers, and models all create the first draft of fashion history. Graduate students in the Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice program present original research on the people who have made fashion news, from the 17th century to the present.

Conference Call

Just wanted to let folks know about an upcoming conference at the CUNY Graduate Center titled “The Golden Age of Gotham’s Clothing Industry: Unraveling an Enterprise" on February 28, from 12:30PM to 8:00PM. The event is not open to the public, but those interested in attending should call 212-817-2005 to find out more about getting a seat. (Thanks Suvi!)

This will be a day-long conference on the history of the New York City garment industry. Nationally recognized historians of New York will convene for three sessions examining the economic, cultural, and social significance of the neighboring garment district and the clothing industry in the city from 1860-1975. Speakers will include Thomas Kessner, professor of history, Graduate Center; David Nasaw, distinguished professor of history and executive director of the Center for the Humanities, Graduate Center; and Marc Levinson, author of "The Box: How the Shipping Container made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger." Also speaking will be Rutger's resident fashion historian and 'material culturist' Regina Blaszczyck.

Hope to see you there!