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LE 35 History of Dress, Fall 2011. Rhode Island School of Design.
Kathleen McDermott, Instructor
Contact information: phone: 617-338-8700; website: www.hautehistory.com; email: kathleen@hautehistory.com (best way to contact me).
Course Description
The history of modern Western dress is told through its visual connection to fine and decorative arts, architecture, and graphic and product design. Classes include lectures, active discussion, review of more than a thousand images, and study of archival garments. Six classes are led by curators who interpret the RISD Museum’s extensive historical costume collection.
Students complete four visual reports: 1) investigating Baroque and Rococo inspirations in current fashion; 2) researching and illustrating 19th century costume; 3) locating a 20th century fashion designer within their Zeitgeist; and 4) identifying, in a small group presentation, a post-1970 fashion subculture.
Recommended Texts
• Style For All: Why Fashion, Invented by Kings, Now Belongs to All of Us, Kathleen McDermott (Lulu Press, 2010);
• Costume History and Style, Douglas A. Russell, (NJ: Prentice Hall, 1983);
• 20th Century Fashion (also spelled Twentieth Century Fashion) by Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye (Thames & Hudson: 1999).
Limited copies available at the RISD bookstore. My book can be downloaded immediately or ordered in a print version from Lulu.com; you can also buy the others at Amazon.
THREE Different Classrooms!
Class meets Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:40 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
Wednesdays: College Building 301 EXCEPT six times, where noted, in the Museum.
Fridays: All Friday classes in Market House 202.
Office hours after class.
Syllabus and Schedule of Classes
Wednesday, September 14: Visual overview of History of Dress, introduction to class assignments, reading, classrooms, etc.
Friday, September 16: Baroque Period (17th century)
Wednesday, September 21: RISD Museum: Rococo through late 18th century collection
Friday, September 23: Rococo and End of the Ancien Regime (18th century).
Wednesday, September 28: Neo-Classicism and Empire (1800-1815). Visual report due identifying Baroque (17th) and Rococo (18th) century influences on contemporary dress.
Friday, September 30: Romantic Period (1820s-1845).
Wednesday, October 5: RISD Museum: 1800-1848 collection
Friday, October 7: Crinoline and Second Empire in Europe/Origins of American Clothing Manufacturing Industry (1845-1870).
Wednesday, October 12: Bustle and Belle Époque (1870s through 1890s).
Friday, October 14: 1900s and the Birth of the Twentieth Century. Visual report due on 19th century historical costume.
Wednesday, October 19: RISD Museum: 1848-1914 collection
Friday, October 21: 1910s and the Origins of Modernism.
Wednesday, October 26: 1920s and the Advent of Cubism.
Friday, October 28: 1930s and Art Deco Abstraction.
Wednesday, November 2: RISD Museum: 1914-1949 collection
Friday, November 4: 1940s and Wartime Crisis.
Wednesday, November 9: 1950s and America’s Ascendance in Art and Fashion
Friday, November 11: 1960s and the Youthquake. Visual report due on 20th century fashion designer/Zeitgeist.
Wednesday, November 16: RISD Museum: 1950s-1970s collection
Friday, November 18: 1975 through Present: The Rise of Post Modernism
THANKSGIVING BREAK: No classes November 23 or 25
Wednesday, November 30: RISD Museum: 1970s-present collection.
Friday, December 2: In-class group presentations on post-1970 fashion subcultures.
Wednesday, December 7: LAST CLASS: Review and in-class group presentations on subcultures.
Four Required Assignments
1. Due September 28. Baroque and Rococo fashion inspiration.
• Choose and reproduce three contemporary fashion images from magazines, newspapers, and electronic media.
• Embed them in a visual print document (chart or other format) that locates their roots/inspiration in male or female 17th Baroque and 18th Rococo century styles (clothing, hair, hats, undergarments, footwear).
• Use visual proofs from three different research sources (e.g., books on historical costume; if using Internet—ONLY museum collections). Total proofs: 15. No thumbnails.
• Describe similarities and differences.
• Attribute all image and proof sources in footnotes or endnotes. Submit in 8/1/2” by 11” manila folder.
2. Due October 14. 19th century historical costume.
• Having been assigned the name of a female character from a 19th century novel, design and sketch two garments for her pursuant to strict historical accuracy: one daytime dress, one evening gown.
• For five aspects of each outfit (pick amongst hair, fabric, jewelry and all other accessories, dress silhouette, seaming, shoes or boots, if visible, and undergarments) provide two historical proofs each to show why you developed these costume choices and why they are appropriate.
• Use visual proofs from three different research sources (e.g., books on historical costume; if using Internet—ONLY museum collections).
• Total proofs: 20. No thumbnails.
• Submit in 8/1/2” by 11” manila folder.
3. Due November 11. Visual report on 20th century fashion designer and Zeitgeist
• Introduction: Two typed pages
First page: Outline your designer’s life and explain what fashion or style characteristic made he/she most famous. Second page: What is special about the clothes themselves? (For example, type of fabric, accessories, sewing or cutting techniques, or any other distinctive points.)
• Body of visual report: How does your designer’s style relate to the Zeitgeist (the larger trends in art and culture of the era of their greatest success)? Pick three examples of esthetic expression, such as fine arts, furniture design, architecture, graphic design and relate them to your designer’s clothes. Use visual proofs from three different research sources (e.g., books on historical costume; if using Internet—ONLY museum collections). Total proofs: 15. No thumbnails.
• Submit in 8/1/2” by 11” manila folder.
4. Due December 2. In-class group presentation on the history and development of a post-1970 fashion subculture.
• Three or four students form a group, allocate research, and prepare a five to seven minute presentation using PowerPoint slideshow, videos, DVDs, CDs, and any other media. Each group must devise a way to demonstrate equal participation in project research, development, and presentation.
• All research can be done on the Internet.
• Group will submit its presentation notes showing history and development of fashion subculture and must attribute all sources. Submit on DVD or in 8/1/2” by 11” manila folder.
Grading, Attendance, and Plagiarism.
• Grades will be based on attendance, class participation, and evaluation of the four assigned projects discussed above. Please deliver folders to me in person when I am on campus on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Do not deliver folders to the Apparel Design or Liberal Arts offices.
• All assignments must be turned in on their due date at whatever stage they might be. I do not accept late work. If nothing at all is handed in on the due date, the grade will be a zero/F on the assignment. You can turn in your completed assignment at the end of the semester; it will be reviewed and positively impact your final course grade.
• Attendance.
1. If you are late to class, it is your responsibility to ensure that I check your name off the attendance register.
2. Students who miss classes are subject to quizzes on missed information.
3. According to RISD policy, three unexcused absences can result in failure.
• Plagiarism. All sources for written papers and in class presentations must be credited in a footnote or endnote. You may not directly copy five or more words, written by someone else, without crediting those words or phrase in a source note. For more details, see the RISD intranet or Student Handbook which set forth the university’s policy prohibiting plagiarism.