2008 Woodie Awards
Student's historically-inspired corsets on display
Johnna Hjersman
Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: Features
Imagine Cleopatra, Coco Chanel, Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc all in one room.
Until the science of time travel is mastered, that scenario won't play out. However, a collection of historical corsets inspired by these and other women can be seen on display on East Campus.
This week, Sabrina Jones Stapp, a graduate student of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's textiles, clothing and design department, introduced a collection featuring seven corsets inspired by influential females from throughout history.
The collection is on display now through Feb. 8 in the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery in the Home Economics Building on East Campus on 35th and Holdrege streets.
On Friday, Stapp hosted an opening reception at the gallery, where she wore a black corset she made herself. The corsets featured in the gallery are part of Stapp's graduate thesis.
Stapp had plenty of professors who were more than willing to offer her help and advice. Among them was Barbara Trout, professor of costume design and costume history at UNL.
"I gave her guidance by … really encouraging her to get a lot of visual research so that she had a lot of interesting visuals to pull from to influence her work," Trout said.
Stapp made sure the corsets were consistent with historical patterns but also made modifications to some in order to make them more modern and comfortable.
"(With) most historic corsets women can't sit down," Stapp said. "They have to be very proper and sit on the edge of their seats. So some of them (the corsets) I shortened the fronts so you could actually sit down."
She also lowered the backs of some for more comfort and removed the straps from two others for aesthetic purposes. Trout explained that because Stapp's purpose for the corsets wasn't to make them into period replicas, she was able to make very wearable pieces out of them.
It seems fitting (forgive the pun) that this set of ultra-feminine pieces was inspired by such strong historical female figures.
Until the science of time travel is mastered, that scenario won't play out. However, a collection of historical corsets inspired by these and other women can be seen on display on East Campus.
This week, Sabrina Jones Stapp, a graduate student of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's textiles, clothing and design department, introduced a collection featuring seven corsets inspired by influential females from throughout history.
The collection is on display now through Feb. 8 in the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery in the Home Economics Building on East Campus on 35th and Holdrege streets.
On Friday, Stapp hosted an opening reception at the gallery, where she wore a black corset she made herself. The corsets featured in the gallery are part of Stapp's graduate thesis.
Stapp had plenty of professors who were more than willing to offer her help and advice. Among them was Barbara Trout, professor of costume design and costume history at UNL.
"I gave her guidance by … really encouraging her to get a lot of visual research so that she had a lot of interesting visuals to pull from to influence her work," Trout said.
Stapp made sure the corsets were consistent with historical patterns but also made modifications to some in order to make them more modern and comfortable.
"(With) most historic corsets women can't sit down," Stapp said. "They have to be very proper and sit on the edge of their seats. So some of them (the corsets) I shortened the fronts so you could actually sit down."
She also lowered the backs of some for more comfort and removed the straps from two others for aesthetic purposes. Trout explained that because Stapp's purpose for the corsets wasn't to make them into period replicas, she was able to make very wearable pieces out of them.
It seems fitting (forgive the pun) that this set of ultra-feminine pieces was inspired by such strong historical female figures.
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