Cataloguing

Many museum collections contain a significant amount of clothing and other textiles. Often, these have been catalogued with confusing terminology and inaccurate dates. I can clean up your database, ensuring that your understanding of your collection is as detailed and correct as it can be.

Curation

Let me help design an exhibition that makes the best use of your fashion and textile collection! I can perform any or all of the steps in planning an exhibition for your museum, from basic research and object selection to layouts and label-writing.

Costume Mounting

Dressing historic garments requires specialized experience in manipulating mannequins to fit them and have the proper silhouettes. I can make the necessary skirt foundations, install costumes, and even fabricate custom dress forms for exhibition or collections photography.

Patterning

Any textile item, no matter how complex, can be noninvasively deconstructed into its constituent parts on paper. I can turn historical garments from museum collections into both detailed diagrams at 1/8 scale and full-size, graded sewing patterns, for use by the museum or for sale.

Lectures

My knowledge of fashion and decorative arts history extends from the eighteenth century (and earlier) through the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Please reach out to me if you are interested in having me speak at a brown bag lunch, summer lecture series, or other museum event.