Student Interpretations of Historic Costume Influences in Contemporary Dress
and Design
LuAnn Gaskill, Ph.D.
Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management
Virginia Tech
Since the beginning of human civilization, people from every country and culture all over
the world have engaged in dress and adornment for protection, modesty, status, and/or
decoration and self expression. The choices we make in the use of clothing, textiles, and dress is
part of that human experience and reflected through themes in social life and class structure;
social roles and changing patterns in social behavior; trade and commerce; industrial and
technological advances; etc. To fully study and document the human experience also requires
the study and documentation of how we dress and adorn our bodies. It is the study of historic
costume. History of Costume (AHRM 4034) is taught annually at VT in the apparel program and
is a course open to the university community. Throughout the semester, students study the
history of western dress from the ancient world through contemporary dress of the twenty-first
century using a wide variety of teaching methods especially focused on visual learning
techniques, stimuli, and images of historic costume (films, PowerPoint presentations, historical
clothing artifacts and museum pieces, fashion plates and pictures, etc.) Through a recent course
project, students were able to relate contemporary design to historic design elements through
the creation of a portfolio that incorporated design silhouettes and elements found in modern
day dress that reflected an historic perspective. Completing this project required a a review of
historic costume as well as research involving a review of current fashion trends and
contemporary design elements. This project increased student learning opportunities through
research, design interpretation, and visual learning teaching methods.