welcome to costume on!
-Teachers-
The teachers featured on Costume On are fantastic independent artists who have spent years honing their skills and offer the benefit of their experience through real-time live demos online.
Classes are booked with and paid directly to the teachers. Attendance and wait lists are at their discretion. Questions regarding specific classes should be addressed to those teachers.
See you soon!
Kay Demlow
Kay Demlow created Lavender’s Green Historic Clothing in 1991 in Hillsboro, Oregon to bring the clothing of the past to people living today (www.lavendersgreen.com). She is the owner, researcher, designer and primary dressmaker, creating custom garments for museums, reenactors, and Living History in the United States and Canada. Demlow specializes in civilian clothing of the 19th and early 20th centuries and offers fashion history talks, replica clothing workshops, and clothing construction classes.
Demlow is active in many historical groups, including Hillsboro Historical Society, Association of Living History Farms and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), Restore Oregon and the Preservation Artisans’ Guild.
A REGENCY PROJECT: RECREATING AN 1820S TASHA TUDOR SLEEVE
Chantal Filson
Chantal Filson is a professional costume designer and owner of 1886. She has always had an obsession with the 19th century deep in her bones, and the curious melding of professional design/project management and historical costume has led her here.
1886 is a Victorian manor located in New England, and is undergoing repairs and restoration as it is put back to full 1880s period style. Someday soon it will host on-site immersion events, workshops and many shenanigans of various eras. In the meantime, please join us for Costume On, and check out the shop! All offerings are either original designs or drafted from antiques. Your purchase supports 1886. www.1886location.com/shop
millinery workshop: 1887 Asymmetrical short brim hat
millinery workshop: basic millinery 1870 dolly varden hat
Denise Hendrick started her costuming journey over 25 years ago. The hobby eventually led to an apparel design degree followed by starting Romantic Recollections in 2005. (https://romanticrecollections.com/)
Since 2014, she’s been offering designs and classes to help other costumers bring the beauty of historic embroidery & embellishment to their own projects.
Denise Hendrick
Beyond the Fringe: A Deeper Look at 18th Century Passementerie
Georgian Ribbon Embroidery: An Overview
Intro to Digitizing Embroidery: an Overview
Emily Lapisardi
Emily Lapisardi is the proprietor of Rue de la Paix Reproductions (https://www.etsy.com/shop/RuedelaPaixRepros). She has presented living history and textile programs for conferences, museums, historical societies, and educational institutions in 14 states and Washington, D.C. Prior engagements include: the 1860s Civilian Celebration (Capon Springs), the Communal Studies Association, the Herb Society of America's Great Lakes Gathering, the International Spy Museum, Heinz History Center (Pittsburgh, PA), Manassas Museum System, Manassas National Battlefield (NPS), Petersburg National Battlefield (NPS), Fort Mill Ridge Foundation (Romney, WV), the Battle of Secessionville (Charleston, SC), the Surratt Society, and for numerous historical societies and round tables.
She also has extensive experience as a singer, actor, dancer, organist, and pianist and currently serves as Director of Musical Activities for the Catholic Chapel at the United States Military Academy (West Point, NY). Emily holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from West Virginia University (where she was named a WVU Foundation Outstanding Senior and received the university’s nomination for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships) and a Masters degree in Sacred Music from Duquesne University. As a musicologist, she received the Communal Studies Association’s research fellowship for her work on the hymnody of American communal societies. Additionally, Emily founded the vocal music program, demonstrated sericulture, and served on the board at Old Economy Village, where she was named Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission 2006 Volunteer of the Year.
Mid-Nineteenth Century Fans: A Review
Leah Lloyd
Leah Lloyd has been costuming for over 40 years. She has an Associates degree in Illustration and a Bachelor's in Costume Design, a Laurel from the Society for Creative Anachronism, and been Costume Guest of Honor and Featured Guest at Central PA Comic Con and Zenkaikon. Her experience includes helming panels and classes at DressU, DragonCon, AnimeUSA, Dark Odyssey, and Pennsic, including draping a basic Victorian Bodice, the history and construction of Medieval headdresses, 18th Century dresses, decorating mermaid bras, fabric manipulation for clothing embellishment, and assembling cyberdreads, and has been featured on Ohio Kimono and in Lancaster County Magazine.
Recent projects include rhinestoning sunglasses and creating an Edwardian Maleficent based on a Worth tea gown from the Museum of the City of New York.
Bayeux Tapestry Stitch Workshop: Tutorial & Discussion of an ages-old tradition
Paul Malcolm
Paul Malcolm learned how to use a sewing machine at age seven. Largely self-taught, he was drafting his own patterns based on anime characters by age 13, costuming his mother's students for dance recitals in high school, and has since delved into everything from Renfaire garb to traditional Asian garments to meticulous historical research into the 18th century garment trades.
He has written two papers on a pair of stays housed at the Philadelphia Art Museum that he suspects belonged to a man, both of which are on his blog at angryhistoryguy.wordpress.com. He has spent the last two spring/summer/fall seasons as the head tailor at East Jersey Old Town, a living history site in Piscataway New Jersey.
Favourite garment-related subjects include corsetry, the history of labour conditions in the garment trades, Japanese fashion during Taisho era (1912-1926), garment life-cycles, and the way that garments are used to reflect identities. He is openly transgender, and his love of 18th century clothing in particular was likely sparked by a combination of Muppet Treasure Island and the American Girl Felicity books.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angryhistoryguy
Making to Measure: Historical measuring/patterning for 18th & 19th Century menswear
Carrie Midura has been sewing professionally and as hobby for 25+ years and has lectured and taught sewing classes throughout New England. She has been researching and reproducing historic costume since 1992, with a primary focus on eighteenth and early nineteenth century methods and styles since 1999. Her clients and employers have included Revolutionary War reenactors, staff and volunteers at the Concord Museum, the historic Massachusetts estate Gore Place, Adams National Historical Park, and Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.
Carrie places a great deal of importance on period construction techniques and close attention to detail. Today, she is the Wardrobe Manager for History Alive, Inc., an immersive history-themed non profit theatre company based in spooky Salem, Massachusetts. On and off the clock, she is passionate about sewing clothing to help costumed actors and interpreters share stories based on local history while teaching others to do the same.
Carrie Midura
CLASSES:
Custom Patterning: Redrafting 18th Century Stays
Edwardian Drawers Workshop: Historical overview & drafting your own
Kristen Mrozek
Kristen earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, specializing in English education. Later, she graduated from Wayne State University with a Master’s Degree in Composition and Rhetoric. During that time she began to reproduce historic jewelry and travel to different events as The Victorian Needle. She also has a large collection of original 19th century items, such as clothing, accessories, and punch paper. In 2017 she formed The Citizen’s Forum of the 1860s, a non-profit conference that promotes research and education about the mid 19th century.
Kristen Mrozek teaches high school English and Spanish at an alternative high school, and has been in the classroom for ten years. She lives in Holly, Michigan with her fiance and their beagle, a trained therapy dog.
A Closer Look at Punched Paper: History of a 19th century craft & diy
Beads, stones & Human hair: A look at 19th century Jewelry
Cassidy Percoco
Cassidy's interest in historical fashion started with the different outfits shown on the heroines of the American Girl books, and she once presented to her third grade class on the layers of an eighteenth-century woman's dress. She received her master's degree in Fashion and Textile History, Theory, and Museum Practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2012, and currently works as the collections manager at the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers' Museum.
While doing research for her master's thesis on Neoclassical dress at the turn of the nineteenth century, Cassidy started to prepare a book of patterns of eighteenth century dress, which, to cut a long story short, resulted in the publication of Regency Women's Dress in 2015. Since that time, she has also been an active poster on and moderator of AskHistorians, the internet's largest public history site, where she answers questions about fashion history and, more broadly, women's and social history of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Her blog, A Most Beguiling Accomplishment (www.mimicofmodes.com) , has been running since she was at FIT, and her pattern line, Mimic of Modes Historical Patterns (https://www.etsy.com/shop/mimicofmodes), debuted early this year.
The Pink Pingat: Understanding a Couture Gown from 1867
Catherine Scholar
Catherine Scholar read "Little House on the Prairie" at age five and has been obsessed with historic clothing ever since. She learned to sew at her mother's knee and to embroider at her grandmother's. In high school she discovered vintage dance, the Northern Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and Dickens Fair, and was amazed to learn that she could combine her passions for dance, costume, history and theater.
Catherine served on the board of the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild for 10 years as Newsletter Editor, Events Coordinator, and President. She has taught many costuming workshops for GBACG, Lacis, Renaissance Fabrics, and Costume College, and is a current fashion student.