Historical Dress: What the Dickens?

Course Description

Summary

The Dickensian Silhouette: Character, Construction, and the Victorian Line

(Intermediate to Advanced design & sewing)

In Dickens the Designer, Juliet McMaster argues that Charles Dickens possessed an "unrivalled power to make character visible," treating every cravat, ribbon, and waistcoat as a precise entry in a visual dictionary of the human soul. In this course, the student designer’s task is to move beyond mere historical reenactment, using the Victorian silhouette instead as a narrative tool.

Students will engage in a rigorous design-to-build process to create a garment for one of the two seminal celebrations in A Christmas Carol. Tasked with manifesting either the inclusive communal warmth of the late-Regency Fezziwig’s Ball or the aspiring gentility of Fred’s mid-Victorian dinner, students will research, design, pattern draft, fit and construct a fully realized period look. We will explore the shifting silhouettes of the 1810s versus the 1840s, discuss the semiotics of wealth versus "shabby gentility" and reflect on Thomas Carlyle’s "Philosophy of Clothes."

The Laboratory:

This is a hands-on making course focused on the transition from design to full realization. The technical production cycle includes:

• Historical research and societal-driven design.
• Pattern drafting, scaling, and grading.
• Muslin mockups and peer-to-peer fittings.
• Final construction in fashion fabric.

Garments will be built through a theatrical costume lens to refine skills in patternmaking, fabric handling, and engineering. While authentic period sewing techniques may be researched, they are not the primary focus of this course.

Accessibility and Contribution:

Materials and underpinnings are provided to ensure equitability. Completed garments will be inducted into the Bennington College costume stock as a lasting material resource.

The term culminates in a Dickensian-inspired Christmas Tea Party where the garments will be worn, followed by an exhibition of the design process and finished work.

Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!

                                                                                          — A Christmas Carol