Mannequins and DDR

Amid the hubbub of moving I started all my classes for fall. Here is what my semester looks like:

Exhibit: Plan & Interpretation—This is a big one. Every spring the second year students in my program put on an exhibition at the Museum at FIT. We’ve all been looking forward to it with a mix of excitement and fear. As rewarding and valuable as it is to create a real museum exhibit, the project also has a history of creating exhaustion, frustration, and bitterness. One of the points of tension is the assignment of jobs. A few positions (the curators mainly) do the majority of the work. They learn the most and get the most credit, but the commitment of time and effort is brutal. Those with smaller jobs are less stressed out, but resent how little they are getting out of the experience.

I put my name in for curator, and part of me really wanted it. It is a huge honor, and it must feel great at the end to look at the exhibit and say, “I did this.” However with my 21 hour per week job I was worried about the time commitment. My nervousness only increased when we met for the first day of class. Something about the way the project was presented filled me with nervousness and dread (I can’t go into much detail, but the term “dictator” was used in positive context). That Friday we each got phone calls announcing our positions. At first I was disappointed to get a small job, but the more I think about it the more I realize it is the best thing that could have happened. If I were curator I'd be looking forward to six months of unparalleled stress and pressure. I'll still be busy with school, but I'll have breathing room to pay attention to my other classes, hang out with my housemates, and sleep regularly. I’m in charge of PR. So far I’ve read examples of press releases and picked out a dress to wear for the media preview in March.

History of American Men’s Wear—Pretty much what it says on the tin.

Costume & Textile Mounting Skills—This is, in essence, mannequin dressing. Sound easy and lame? It is actually one of the best and most valuable courses offered in the program.

The class is taught by a woman who worked for years at the Met and is something of a legend in the field. Her approach requires that we read books on anatomy in order to understand the human body and how it is modified by clothes in various periods. Over the course of the semester we have to diagram 10 period garments (from a study collection) and show exactly how they are proportioned and how they are put together. How are the seams finished? How are the shoulders cut? How is the skirt pleated? This is our chance to really get into the details of clothing. With an understanding of construction and anatomy, we can start to understand how people stood and held their bodies in various periods. Each garment expects a certain structure underneath. You just need to know how to create the right one.

Special Topics—also known as “DDR.” Last semester we got to vote on the topic for this seminar. We settled on an awesome one: Deconstruction, Destruction, and Reconstruction. We are exploring the recent tendency in fashion to have clothes that look like they are missing pieces, falling apart, or crudely put together. The most familiar examples are jeans that come pre-torn or shirts that are made to look like they are inside-out. This is heavy fashion theory. On our first day our professor explained that this phenomenon first appeared right before the fall of the Berlin Wall and then gained strength again in the wake of September 11. What does it say about our society that we seem drawn to dressing like we’ve been through some violent or earth-shattering event? Last week we read a book called Structuralism and Post-Structuralism for Beginners. It was awesome. I love it when my supposedly vapid and superficial field becomes mind-bendingly thought provoking.