Scenes from the end of the semester

So apparently I just completed another semester of grad school. One year ago I was marveling at the fact that I had completed one quarter of my classes. Now I have only ONE QUARTER LEFT. That is crazy.

I haven't posted in a bit and I'm using the end of semester as an excuse. So here are some pics to illustrate what I've been up to.

This is the fork-turned-bracelet I bought on etsy as part of my final assignment in DDR. Instead of a paper, we were assigned to locate and purchase an item that represented deconstruction, destruction, or reconstruction. It was tough because we could only spend $75, yet the museum usually likes big designer names. I argued that etsy and the do-it-yourself/eco-friendly movement was important in fashion today. I guess it was persuasive, because mine was one that was picked to be presented to the museum accessions committee! But hey, if it doesn't work out, I get a sweet fork bracelet to wear.

Jealous? You can get your own here.

This is a photo I took on the day our mannequins were due. Mine is in the back in the brown dress. The one on the right was dressed by a guy from the museum staff. He has years of experience dressing mannequins but the museum has a policy that you can't dress period garments unless you have taken the class with our professor. Since he already had experience he was the only one without a partner. Besides building a fully boned corset for his lady, he also whipped up that hat the night before.

On Monday I presented my thesis topic to a panel of graduate professors. I proposed writing my qualifying paper about Seattle high-fashion retailer John Doyle Bishop. I first learned about him eight years ago when I was interning at MOHAI as a high schooler and have been fascinated by him ever since. At first the panel had sort of critical questions ("so, you haven't found his business records?") but eventually they seemed to get more excited about it. After showing them pictures of his swanky store and then him wearing pants decorated with his initials one of the women said "I want to be John Doyle Bishop." Yes! The topic was approved and you will all, no doubt, hear tons about him in the coming months.

Speaking of men, yesterday I presented my menswear paper about novelty pants. Since last time I showed you all the ridiculous things I found, here is one I actually loved:

1957 Pucci. Swoon! (Not sure why there is a dolphin floating above it)

And that's it! That is all the stuff I've been working on!

What's that you say? Didn't I have another class? Right. The exhibition. That one has been...um...fine. Yep. Actually, I do have some things to report. It was unclear for a long time how secretive we had to be about the topic since it hadn't been officially approved by the museum. But this finally went up on the website so I guess the secret is out. I've been put in charge of getting use rights for copyrighted material, and am close to inking a deal with Sony to get this (the band is wearing designs by Westwood).

Now that song is going to be stuck in your head all day! You're welcome!