ABSTRACT
This course uses common silhouettes to teach students how to think globally about modern and historical dress. It examines how the four construction techniques defined by Barbara and Cletus Anderson—the draped, semi-fitted, fitted, and artificial silhouettes—iterate across some three dozen cultural moments, including India from ancient to modern, early modern Mexico, Elizabethan England, and contemporary futurism. Weekly discussions and hands-on exercises such as drawing historical garments, designing a draped garment out of a bedsheet, and patterning a poncho allow students to apply different learning modalities. These activities build their drawing and construction skills, preparing them to design and construct their own garments later in the course. By the end of the unit, students connect how and why different clothing silhouettes and clothing technologies developed. The unit enables students to develop the tools and language they need to understand the images they find in historical research. It also helps students explain what references are at play in their later designs.
