Town and Country Made: The Custom Dress Designs of Ethel Wallace, 1930-1955

Ethel Wallace (1885-1968) was a twentieth century artist who achieved great success with textiles and paintings. New information has emerged regarding Wallace\u27s mid career in New Hope, PA via the acquisition of her personal papers.2 This cache of primary data allowed for the reconstruction of previously missing details regarding Wallace\u27s mid life/career and has been mostly unavailable for research since her death in 1968

Female presidents of Bonwit Teller: Hortense Odlum (1934-40) and Mildred Custin (1965-70)

The Industrial Revolution allowed for the mechanized production of mass amounts of consumer goods including apparel. The marketplace flooded to a frenzied pace beginning in the mid nineteenth century. As such, stores evolved from the dry goods environments of the early nineteenth century to become larger in scale; the department store was born. Many historians such as William Leach have concluded that department stores contributed to the development of a distinctive American culture built upon consumption. Not only were goods available but they also were presented to consumers in a compelling aspirational environment. Shopping became the American pastime and women in particular found new social opportunities in the public sphere with hours spent in stores. One such store that developed in this era was Bonwit Teller founded in 1895. Bonwit\u27s was executed on the scale of a department store, but founder Paul Bonwit chose to only offer the best most luxurious fashions for a female only clientele. As a woman\u27s place, Bonwit\u27s particularly benefited from female leadership. This dissertation examined the history of Bonwit Teller which up until this time has remained somewhat obscure, but also documented the stories of two female presidents of the store Hortense Odlum (1934-40) and Mildred Custin (1965-70). Without previous work experience and little education Hortense Odlum would come to Bonwit\u27s during the Great Depression when the business was on the brink of failure. Although Odlum came to her position through her wealthy husband\u27s acquisition of the company, she quickly proved herself a formidable leader and savvy businessperson. Women continued to shop during the Depression; however, price was a mitigating factor. Odlum worked to offer quality, fashionable attire across all price points from the best couture to the most sensible day suiting. In doing so she created new departments to accommodate her pricing strategy including the Salon de Couture, Rendezvous, Debutante and College Girls. Taking her cues from what she expected as a female shopper she also established a beauty salon in the store. To attract a male customer during the holiday season she established the 721 Club that made shopping for the women in their lives easier. Odlum also connected with her female customers and established a Consumer Advisory Committee. By the time Odlum left Bonwit\u27s in 1944 she had tripled the volume of the store and planned the company\u27s first branch location in White Plains, New York. Twenty-one years later Mildred Custin became the second female president of the store. The 1960s were a period of rapid cultural change. During this time, Custin introduced European designers such as Pierre Cardin, and André Courrèges to the American market and domestically she placed Calvin Klein\u27s first major order. Custin introduced menswear to Bonwit\u27s previously women\u27s only assortment and subsequently fueled the spread of the Peacock Revolution in the United States. As a woman with a gentle voice, but stylish clear vision, she embraced fashion and styles of the era and led Bonwit Teller through a period of phenomenal success. This research is important, as aside from scholarship regarding Dorothy Shaver and her career at Lord and Taylor, documentation of female leadership in retail is limited. Shaver is documented as the first female president of a major American retail firm and yet Odlum preceded her by ten years. Also, Custin started to work in the fashion retail business as early as 1928. The history of women is often abbreviated and in the case of leadership in American retail, practically ignored. This research attempted to document two of the assuredly countless untold stories and contributions of women in retail

Beautiful Protector, a 3D Printed Neckpiece

Beautiful Protector was designed to reflect internal and emotional concepts of protection in an outward form of adornment. It is an artistic statement of how the walls we choose to build do protect us, but can also leave us alone and unable to interact fully with the outside world

The Art and Bohemian Character of Ethel Wallace

Ethel Wallace was a painter and textile artist who gained great prominence in the early part of the 20th century. Wallace’s work was exhibited in Paris, London, New York, and Philadelphia. Her textiles were featured by Macy’s department store and published in Vogue. Ms. Wallace’s social circle included Paul Poiret, Gertrude Whitney and opera singer Eva Gauthier. Yet, by her death, Wallace and her work had fallen from the public eye. Despite her artistic achievements and innovation of technique, her story has been written out of the history books

Teaching Creative Design Process: Grey Gardens Documentary as a Source of Inspiration

In an effort to further support the development of creative design skills in the student body a special topics course was developed for Spring 2013. The instructor identified students that exhibited exceptional skill in two separate sections of fashion illustration the previous semester. These students were then invited to participate in this experimental course

Cultural Exchanges

Cultural Exchanges is an artistic outcome grounded in language, collaboration, technology, and sustainability. Two colleagues came together to create this gown of digitally printed Chinese dupioni with 3D printed embellishment. The finished piece is the result of a design process that was enriched with cultural and personal exchange between two individuals that came from distinctly different backgrounds; American Jewish and Korean. The design process for this work began with the development of a rich textile surface. A high-resolution scan of a painting completed by one of the designers served as the foundation for the textile. To further facilitate the exchange of cultural heritage information, traditional Korean hanbok served as a reference point for the development of the silhouette of Cultural Exchanges. The focal pendant was created with the use of Rhinoceros 3D modeling software and printed on a Makerbot Fifth Generation 3D Printer in polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer

University fashion show: Best practices to showcase student work.

The university catwalk is often used as a promotional tool by programs to highlight their student designers. This panel will discuss the different types of fashion shows held at their own school and look at different business models which keep them going. Discussion topics will include: the goal of the fashion show, fundraising, garment selection, sponsorships, ticket prices, locations, audience, diversity/ethical considerations for models, sustainability, getting publicity, obtaining a venue, theme/branding, photography, developing a relationship between the students producing the show and the student designers, etc. We will also touch on motivating students, student roles and communication techniques. Some schools also extend their fashion show through museum exhibits or displays highlighting the best of show. Schools also differ on whether they offer a course on fashion show productions or if it is a student-led and run production. Panelists include a student who produced the fashion show at her school as an undergraduate for a different perspective on the discussion. We will also speak about whether the traditional fashion show model is needed in an era of social media.Design, Housing and Merchandisin

Achieving success in historic research: The importance of research methods and theory

Historic research is an important area of exploration in the field of fashion and textiles. It is important, however, to ensure that historical research maintains a high level of quality by utilizing sound methodology and theory. This panel seeks to address the role of methodology and theory in historical research and discuss how these can be better implemented and communicated to improve research productivity, presentations, and publications