Costume Studies students stepped back in time to 1897 last Thursday, waltzing around in lavish Dracula-inspired velvet gowns, breezy beach wear and handsome cycling attire they spent a whole year perfecting.
鈥淓very year, we build the show around what the students have chosen,鈥� says Dr. Perin Westerhof Nyman, instructor for the historical dressmaking class in Dal鈥檚 Costume Studies program. 鈥淚 never know what the show is going to be like until they give me proposals for their projects.鈥�
This time around, students homed in on a year that provided plenty of fodder for their creative pursuits. In 1897, people celebrated Queen Victoria鈥檚 Diamond Jubilee, Dracula was published and puffed sleeves, and elegant hourglass silhouettes were trending. It gave students an exciting variety of historical styles to choose from, including more 鈥榮candalous鈥� options.
Emmet Szoczei knew from the beginning they wanted to make a cycling outfit. They crafted earth-toned knickerbockers, knee-length trousers that ballooned out at the thigh before cinching at below the knee.
The outfit paired perfectly with an 1890s bicycle Emmet sourced as a prop.
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Above: Emmet Szoczei, left, in their cycling outfit and听Jia Hou in a light blue silk evening gown.
鈥淭here鈥檚 now also the option of bloomers and knickerbockers and silhouettes that are maybe still a little scandalous at that point in time but are now open to women for different activities,鈥� says Dr. Westerhof Nyman.
Layers of style
As the enthusiastic audience of the Historical Dress presentation in the Joseph Strung Concert Hall learned, the historical garments consisted of much more than their elegant, effortless-looking exteriors.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just going to look right, but on the inside, if you open it all up, it鈥檚 done right,鈥� says Joanna Crosby-Wilson, who is graduating from the Costume Studies diploma program.
Underneath each student鈥檚 lavishly coloured and textured outer garments were two to three layers supporting the structure of their outer garments.听
Preparing their historical creations was a year-long endeavor. Those creating dresses started with sewing the chemises, petticoats and fitting their corsets, which took many adjustments to get to the right fit.
鈥淭he dresses are meant to look effortless on the outside but there might be multiple layers of horsehair and wire and padding under there, making it function,鈥� says Dr. Westerhof Nyman.
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Above, Shuiyue Kirkegaard, left, in a brown cotton and black velvet day dress and Veena Erasmus in her green and pink silk afternoon gown.听
The first part of the show invited the audience to see a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the students' costumes as they helped each other get ready, with the important step of putting on their shoes before their corsets so they could bend down properly.
Fashion fascination
During the next section of the show, each of the seven graduating students had their moment to shine on stage, showing off the historical dresses they themselves had researched, designed and created from start to finish, met with enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Joanna stepped on to the stage wearing a breezy purple and white striped dress, smiling wide and twirling a white ruffled parasol.
Her dress was inspired by the everyday lives of lower middle-class women and a particular striped dress that caught her eye from a Sicilian museum, Casa Museo Rafello Piraino Intent on mastering her historical replication, she custom printed the cotton fabric and tried many different cuts of puffed sleeves before choosing the right one.
Joanna was fascinated by the 1890s inspiration for 1830s fashion, the era from which the pleating on her bodice was inspired.
Above: Joanna Crosby-Wilson in her purple and white striped beach dress, with听background photos depicting her archival inspirations.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking back at something that happened over 100 years ago, but they are also looking back,鈥� says Joanna.
Another student, Eleanor Sawchuk, wore an elegant eveningwear dress inspired by an exclusive high fashion gown by the House of Worth in the Victoria and Albert collection. The body of the dress was made with a soft violet silk taffeta and trimmed with iridescent silk chiffon and even decorated with hand-dyed roses that her mother made.
Eleanor鈥檚 family flew in from her hometown of Blyth, Ont., for the event.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to show them what these four years have taught me,鈥� says Eleanor, highlighting the uniqueness of the Costume Studies program that drew her in.
鈥淚t has given me an incredible amount of sewing skills and research skills, which there鈥檚 not a lot of programs in the country that do,鈥� she says.
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Above: Eleanor Sawchuk, left, in her shiny purple silk evening dress and听Rowan McGillivray in her black velvet evening gown.
Students鈥� family members weren鈥檛 the only ones coming from far and wide for the show.
A former teaching assistant in Costume Studies flew in from Winnipeg to help with choreography and a few other faculty members who were on sabbatical or maternity leave helped with dressing.
The show gave Eleanor and her tight-knit group of costume studies students a chance to celebrate their hard work.
鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to hanging out with them and celebrating all the work that everyone鈥檚 done,鈥� says Eleanor, who organized an 1890s tintype photoshoot ahead of their showcase in front of the old stone buildings of Dal's Studley quad.听
Shown left: Rowan, left, and Eleanor captured on tintype. (Alanah Correia photo)
鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to be really cool to have a historical method of photography to show my dress in a method that it could have been captured in back then,鈥� says Joanna.
The other looks of the evening included Jia Hou's light blue silk evening gown, Shuiyue Kirkegaard鈥檚 beautifully contrasting black velvet and brown cotton day dress, Veena Erasmus鈥� iridescent green day dress, and Rowan McGillivray鈥檚 dracula-inspired evening gown.
Students bow after the show. L-R: Eleanor Sawchuk, Rowan McGillivray, Veena Erasmus, Shuiyue Kirkegaard, Jia Hou and Joanna Crosby-Wilson.
Students closed out the show by dancing a partner waltz, swinging their petticoats, laughing and having a grand time against a backdrop of classical music emanating from an antique gramophone.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the end of their degree and I want them to enjoy something that is not for anyone else, it鈥檚 for them,鈥� says Dr. Westerhof Nyman.