Wave Gothic Treffen dress for Ana Axernia

A fun dress for my friend and her trip to Leipzig, May 2012.

Tribal Belly dance costuming

Red & black pantaloons for Jesse from Moirai Tribal in London.

London College of Fashion, Tuxedo

I was very lucky to be involved in London College of Fashion's Tuxedo exhibition in August of 2011.

Curated by Ben Whyman and installed in London at Quintessentially and Burlington Arcade, celebrating 150 years of the tuxedo in fashion.

I was hired as exhibition assistant on the project for both installations. I completed display banners and helped with preparing, dressing and installing the mannequins.

Tuxedo banner

London College of Fashion, MA Show 2011

On February 1, 2011, I officially completed my MA in Fashion Curation. In our MA show, each student was given a space to highlight their work.

My MA thesis was titled Mourning, Memory, Memento: Victorian Mourning Dress and the widow's peak cap.

Our thesis was made up of two parts, thesis and exhibition design. 

The first goal of the paper is to survey the subject of Victorian mourning in Britain and the significance it had in the lives of Victorian women, through the lens of previous work done by early dress historians.

In the section section ideas from the study of dress history, curation, exhibitions and colour symbolism related to Victorian mourning are explored through academic writing, material culture case studies and past exhibitions. 

Museological questions surrounding the creation and use of replicas in museum collections and exhibitions became central during the research process. These questions are explored by contrasting two previous exhibitions at Brighton Museum and Museum of London. My work on the Regency garments for Brighton Museum became very important to my understanding of the issues surrounding replicas and replica making. I am not trained as a milliner, but I did my best to create a replica cap for the installation. Much more difficult than it looks!

Information panel

Front view of installation

 Close up of the installation

Installation and creator

The exhibition design for Mourning, Memory, Memento was highlighted on the London College of Fashion SHOWTIME website.

http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/JenniferRothrock

A very brief and kind review of the LCF MA Show 2011 and my installation can be found here at Wild Lace's blog:

http://wildlace.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/jennifer-rothrock-ma-fashion-curation.html

I was interviewed by fellow MA Fashion Curation graduate Jenna Rossi-Camus in her review of the show for Worn Through:

http://www.wornthrough.com/2011/02/24/student-showcase-london-college-of-fashion-ma-show-2011/

Photo of finished belt for Brighton Museum

Since my last post in Feb 2011, the belt was completed and a custom display stand was made by the exhibition team at Brighton Hove Museum. The belt is currently on display at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton as part of the Dress for Excess exhibition. 
I am so proud and honoured to have been a part of this project. A sincere thanks to the curator, Martin Pel for the opportunity to share in the project.

George IV body belt for Dress for Excess

It's been a busy few months for me. Since my last post in September I have completed my MA dissertation and have been working on preparation for my MA show, which opened this week.

The project deadlines for the Brighton exhibition Dress for Excess were swapped and the replica of George IV's body belt became the first replica to go on display when the exhibition opens on Saturday, 5th February 2011.

The remaining projects will go on display in August 2011, so keep checking back for updates!

Correct materials in purely natural fibers can be hard to find these days, but I managed to find cotton twill for the base fabric, cotton thread, cotton twill tape and shell buttons to complete the belt. I was unable (thankfully) to use whalebone for the boning, so used standard metal corset boning.

The most difficult element of the construction was the laced slits in the center front and sides of the belt. Getting a consistent, clean finish in these areas was difficult but the result was well worth the effort.

The most confusing element of the project was the construction used to fasten the belt in the back. Martin found a chapter in Robert Doyle's Waisted Efforts on this specific belt and answered our questions regarding fastening, buttons and loops!

Here is a photo of the finished back with the loop detail.

Image of the finished belt, front view.

Image of finished belt before adding the buttons, back view.

The belt will be on display with three original garments worn by George IV.

Hopefully I will be able to get some photos of the display and object panel once it's installed.

When Martin showed me where the belt would be on display I was overwhelmed with excitement and so thankful to have had the opportunity to work on the project.

Knowing that I have something I made on display at the Royal Pavillion is so exciting!!

Here is the link to the press release for the exhibition:

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=b1149084&action=show_pr&id=251525

Sari dress for Carmel

Carmel recently went to India to attend a wedding and brought back a beautiful cotton sari. She asked me to make it up in the same style as her favorite summer shift dress.

Needless to say the dress looks better on Carmel than on my mannequin.

front view

back view