THEA 230 Costume History and Fashion

3 semester hours

Focusing on selected/representative eras, this course explores the evolution of costume (clothing) forms as a cultural expression of Western fashion from early civilizations through contemporary times. Costumes are studies as primary artifacts and as representative signs of socio/political/economic/aesthetic forces to reveal aspects of the daily lives of human beings living in historic eras other than and including that of the students themselves. Design elements are explored. Comparing and contrasting historical costume modes with their own allows students to reflect on the origin and effect of their own fashion/costume choices. The course examines how costume and fashion reveal both the power of conformity - even as rebellion - and the compelling drive to differentiate class, gender, and self in human societies. The course seeks to connect the emergence of specific silhouettes and modes of clothing to the methods of manufacture, trade, and social/cultural conditions of each particular era. The significance of the role of the Fashion Designer in our era is explored. Students participate in special “dress up” days to experience directly how historic forms contributed to specific identities in times other than their own. They design and present an imagined fashion collection to be worn ten years into the future in a runway show as the final exam.