Advanced Costume Design Classwork: Spring 2023 – Midsummer Nights Dream
Classwork is theoretical digital drawing for Midsummer Night’s Dream the classic Shakespeare play and the opera version by Benjamin Britton. Sketches by Maggie Connolly(’23) and Aidan Amster(’24).
Draping and Drafting Yennefer’s Jacket from The Witcher III: Wild Hunt– Lile Casey
Throughout my Winter Term internship, I learned how to sketch clothing designs, drape, and draft patterns, and make mock-ups to test their fit. As my final project, I chose to create a pattern of Yennefer’s jacket from The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, one of my favorite video games. I thought it would be challenging, but still possible for me to pattern and test within a week. I also thought that it would draw upon the variety of skills I had just learned and make me feel more confident in challenging myself with complex patterns in the future.
Revisiting Pattern Making- Meili Huang
After an 8-week pattern-making internship this past summer, this winter I revisited the art of pattern-making. I was relieved to see that the skills I had accumulated throughout the summer were not lost. Simultaneously, I embraced the unknown that excited me, brought me challenges, and pushed me to solve problems on my own.
Pattern-making essentially boils down to two main parts — drafting and draping. For the first week, we focused on drafting patterns based on instructions from books of professional pattern-makers. When one does not have special pattern-making tools such as a dress form, drafting makes making a pattern based on a given measurement possible. Draping, on the other hand, requires the pattern-maker to manipulate a piece of fabric on a dress form to create…
Carrying a Design to Flesh: the Making of a Flamenco Skirt – Meili Huang
This article first appeared in the Fall 2021 edition of Clover Magazine, Middlebury College’s student-run fashion online magazine.
Every piece of clothing we wear — from a pair of everyday jeans, your favorite little black dress, a put-together suit jacket or blazer to a stunning couture dress on a red carpet or a costume piece on stage — comes from pattern making. Pattern making is the art of translating the design of a garment to a real piece of apparel that fits a human body. By either drafting pattern pieces on paper (AKA flat patterning) or manipulating a piece of flat fabric to fit the…
Spaces to Make on Campus – Madison Brito
While not uncommon to hear fashion mavens around campus bemoan our lack of sartorial resources, Middlebury actually boasts a host of opportunities for those in search of them. Our campus seems to mirror our generation’s renewed interest in the handmade with a well established and growing community of makers. For our sewists, knitters, or textile creators of any form, the outlets on campus abound, and each one is suited to fit a diverse range of needs and wants.
A Different Kind of Costume: The Middlebury College Antique Clothing Collection
The Middlebury College Antique Clothing Collection (MCACC) is an oasis for fashion and history enthusiasts alike. Every one of MCACC’s 400+ garments from the 1830s to 1930s is imbued with deep cultural significance, offering lessons in American, women’s, and the college’s history alike. The Collection, created by Professor Mira Veikley over the last few years, positions Middlebury as a further font for the study of history through the sartorial eye and is an ever-expanding resource for the campus and larger Middlebury community.
Winter Term 2021: Intro to Corsetry
“Tighter! Cinch it tighter!”
Middlebury students from around the country and Canada came together to make their first corsets in this J-term 2021 class.
Student Spotlight: Madison Brito
While the past year has seen a spike in heavily individualized style and a desire for the homemade, reused, or simply eclectic, a passion for making is nothing new to our campus. This winter term, Carol Wood and Robin Foster Cole even had 10 students left on the waitlist for their 15-seat Introduction to Corsetry class – a course that required owning a machine and basic sewing abilities, no less. From freshmen who have been makers since they were six years old to seniors with elementary alteration skills, an outwardly niche subject is compelling enough to our students to embark on a four week, intensive winter term course. What compels us to want to make garments from centuries past and create things with our own hands when outsourcing is easier than ever is another article itself, but the course is no doubt a testament to our liberal arts education – we can discuss poetry from the 19th century in one class, while literally constructing lingerie from that century in another. Introduction to Corsetry involved a mixture of historical lessons on the garments and their siblings or silhouettes while we continuously constructed a corset at a fast clip – by the second day of class, we had all made an entire ‘fit’ corset out of muslin fabric – and all of this was completely remote. For Alexis Welch, Corsetry “has been one of the most successful zoom classes [she has] taken at Middlebury.” Below, students share their experiences…
Student Spotlight: Lauren Lardinois
Bits of thread follow me wherever I go, sticking to improbable places with tenacity, my project a shedding pet that hasn’t learned to stay off the couch.
Time is told by the unspooling of my bobbin. My hope wraps around those last few coils, as if wishing could stretch them…just…one…inch…farther.
Winter Term 2021: “Patternmaking through Draping” Internship
Katie Concannon
The Inspiration: Cinderella (2015) Work Dress
For my final project of my Winter Term Internship, I chose to recreate Ella’s work dress from Disney’s live-action remake of Cinderella, released in 2015. On my first watch, I was enamored by this dress. I was attracted to it because of the structured bodice, flowing skirt, and the delicate, almost transparent portions of fabric at the sleeves. It also held an element of mystery because I’ve yet to find a satisfactory recreation of the garment online. While mimics of various Cinderella dresses are common for cosplayers, children’s costumes, and brides, all of the examples…
Summer 2020: CCI Internship Projects
During the summer months of 2020, Middlebury College students interested in costume, clothing, and all things wearable got up to some interesting internships! They each developed an independent project including budget, project scope and tracking, and learning outcomes. With guidance from the Middlebury College Costume Shop and funding from Middlebury College’s Center for Careers and Internships (https://www.middlebury.edu/office/careers-internships) as well as an outside agency, they quite successfully accomplished their projects
Cinderella Waltz
Written by Don Nigro, this story turns the classic familiar fairy tale of Cinderella on its head.
THEA0205: Costume Design I: Beginning, Fall 2019