Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

Catherine Hay of Harman Hay

Having been trained as a teacher of Mathematics, Catherine became obsessed somewhere in her mid-twenties with raising spectacular corsets and gowns from centuries-old historical patterns and adapting them for modern brides.

She has been costuming professionally since 1996, using the British alternative wedding industry as an excuse for ambitious costume-making. She has also dabbled in puppetry and theatrical costuming in New York and across New England.

Catherine is the creator and publisher of Your Wardrobe Unlock'd^TM, which was borne out of a grand wish to help other seamstresses and costumers to stay inspired and positive, maximise their skills and realise their historical fashion dreams.

Catherine lives with partner Demi and cats in Nottingham, England.

Marion McNealy

Marion McNealy is the freelance Editor for Your Wardrobe Unlock'd^TM. She has been sewing since the age of two when she sat in her mother's lap 'helping' her sew a sun dress. Since then, she's been researching and making costumes for herself and others in eras from ancient Greece to Anime. Over time, she's shifted from costumes into clothing, focusing on creating items that are well made and finished, that the wearer can be comfortable in and wear with confidence.

Professionally, she has a Master's in Library and Information Science and really enjoys organizing information and helping others to discover great online resources.

She's best known for her research and recreation of the clothing, hats and material culture of Early Modern Germany which she publishes on her blog , and on her website, but she has a serious weakness for the clothing of the 1800's and the 1950's. She loves teaching others to sew and draft their own patterns. She participates in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and has lived in three kingdoms in five years.

Marion lives with her very patient husband and son in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, USA. They occasionally raise a fuss about how the projects have taken over the dining room table and the pins on the floor, but a good apple pie usually silences any further complaints.

Manon Antoinette

Creativity is in the genes! My mother was always sewing and laying out patterns on the dining table or busy painting, while we ate our dinners sitting on the sofa. My mother learned most of her skills from my grand mother who had her own workshop making fur coats right after WWII. After she retired, she kept making her own clothes in a 1950's fashion. She was a great inspiration, lost too soon and still dearly missed.

As a young child I can't say I appreciated my mom's effort of making me clothing. And it was the crafts that got hold of me first. I've been knitting since I was in kindergarten, did a lot of drawing and reading; I also devoured books, a real bookworm and a quiet girl. I have always had a passion for history and especially art, poetry, monarchies, emancipation and the female economy.

My first costuming love was 1560 – 1620, my second 1790 – 1810. That changed when I was playing a part in a Vampire Live – like an improvisation theatre – as a Vampire Ancillae. Having 'lived' about 200 years and due to the nature of the role, this meant extensive research into the Victorian Era. This is also the reason I have yet to wear the same dress twice! I aim to make costumes that look credible. As Tommy Hilfiger said in the show 'The Cut', "With authenticity comes credibility".

I started my business in 2005 selling costumes, and it grew into a combination of selling dress- and corset-making supplies. Nowadays I also do costume design, and just got in my head to start renting out dresses for professional use. You can find me online at www.prudencemaepatterns.com.

And to end with my personal favourite compliment ever, "You look very regal in that photo, I thought you were princess Vicky at first" – Princess Vicky, Victoria's first daughter, Empress Frederick, still gloating!

Gina Barrett

Her personal research has included most periods, from Anglo-Saxon brocade tablet weaving to Victorian dress passementerie. She has been involved in textile research projects with groups around the world.

Her most recent book, Tak v Bowes Departed; A 15th Century Braiding Manual Examined, (co-written with Elizabeth Benns), studies an extant 15th century braiding manual and gives full modern instructions for how to make each of the braids included. She has also co-written six booklets on medieval narrow wares, as well as producing papers and essays on other forms of passementerie.

A trained illustrator, Gina is a partner in a successful UK design agency.

Alexis Black of Electra Designs

Alexis attended FIDM for fashion design for two years where she learned the basics of pattern drafting, but otherwise has taught herself the specifics of corsetry through her own research and experimentation. She has been making corsets full time since 2004.

Working under the name Electra Designs, Alexis has built a worldwide reputation for excellence. Her work has spread by word of mouth through online social networking groups to a point at which interested customers must join a waiting list in order to purchase an example of her skill.

The wait is worth it, however, when the lucky lady receives an art object that not only pleases the eye but demonstrates an uncommon attention to design and detail, featuring quadruple stitching and Alexis’ original modesty panel design.

Alexis lives and works in Houston, Texas, USA.

Ginger Breo

Though her love of dress-up is a life-long pursuit, Heather "Ginger" Breo has been costuming professionally for close to twelve years. One of her first memories is of a Halloween when she was five: "I have a fabulous picture of myself sulking with a red nose," she says, "and all because I didn't think my Bugs Bunny costume was accurate enough (Bugs never wore red footie pajamas, after all)!"

Every Halloween was the same; if she couldn't make it perfect, Ginger wouldn't wear it. She learned to be resourceful with the sewing kit and whatever she could find around the house. "I wonder how many of my mom's old dresses were sacrificed to the cause," she muses, "along with lamp parts, cardboard, and even an easter basket!"

It was ten years before Ginger took her first real sewing class and got her first sewing machine, and the rest, as they say, is history! Ginger is self-taught for theatrical, re-enactment, and purely recreational purposes. Along with acting and singing, the art of clothing is her passion.

Sunny Buchler

Sunny Buchler grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a bit of a mecca for historical costuming, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio a couple years ago. Her undergraduate degree was in costume design, after which did some graduate work at the Motley School of Design in London. She did theatre costuming semi-professionally while in college, but today costumes as a hobby, rather then a profession.

Sunny has been involved in historical costuming and the SCA for the last 15 years, since before she started college.

Katherine Caron-Greig

Katherine is the epitome of the obsessed amateur costumer. A teacher by trade, she spends an inordinate amount of her free time collecting and recreating historical costumes for her own amusement. Despite her taxing profession, she seems to retain boundless energy for her sewing and now boasts a historic wardrobe of dizzying proportions, most of which you can see for yourself at her website, www.koshka-the-cat.com.

With experience of almost every historical period of clothing from the 1550s to the 1950s, Katherine has a special understanding of the pitfalls and opportunities that await the passionate hobbyist.

Katherine is a frequent participant in the Costumer’s Guild West’s annual “Costume College” and lives and works in Nevada, USA.

Bess Chilver

Bess Chilver is an entirely self-taught amateur historical costumer, though she credits the deep call to sew to her maternal Nana who, in the 1950s, often recreated Dior dresses from just a fashion magazine photo. Bess’ Nana still encourages her in her costuming and sewing adventures.

Bess has been familiar with needle, thread and fabric since she was old enough to hold a needle, but caught the “costuming bug” in 1993 when she had to make her gown for her first year at Kentwell Hall’s Recreations of Tudor Life in Suffolk, England.

16th century costume has been Bess’ first love and specialism ever since. She often helps Kentwell participants with making their gowns for the summer event and thanks to Kentwell, she and her husband have frequently been costumed extras in historical documentaries such as the Channel 4's “Royal Deaths and Diseases” series and BBC2’s “Days that Shook the World".

In the last few years, Bess’ costuming interests have broadened from Tudor and Elizabethan to include Regency, 1840s, “Natural Form” Victorian, 1910s “Titanic”, Edwardian periods and WWII Women’s Auxiliary Airforce. Her latest obsession is needlelace: drawn threadwork, punto-in-aria and reticella. Some of her costuming work is shown on her website, which (she says) is sorely in need of updating.

Bess lives in the Suffolk countryside in a 14th/15th century timber framed house along with her husband Edmund, their Moluccan Cockatoo Bilbo and a number of house residents from way back in the past.

Christina Claridge

Christina Claridge sewed from an early age, and quickly discovered that historical costumes were much more interesting than modern clothes.

She is fascinated by all the textile arts, including knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting and embroidery, as well as sewing. However, she has recently found the limit of her skills when she started to learn bobbin lace.

Christina can be found on Ravelry.com and Livejournal as Evelyn123.

Suzi Clarke

Suzi Clarke was born and brought up in Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon in England, attending theatre productions from the age of four. She knew she wanted to work in theatre, working in an office for several years to pay for the tickets before landing her first theatre job.

She began at the Royal Shakespeare Company by learning how to work with costumes already made. She then went to London and worked in the West End on various productions, ranging from Winnie the Pooh through Gypsy, Hedda Gabler and Three Sisters to a nude revue with 147 costumes.

Following marriage and the birth of a son Suzi returned to college, where her tutors were Jean Hunnisett and Janet Arnold. She briefly returned to the RSC as a costume maker, then went freelance. She has been making costumes ever since, including some film, theatre and TV work, and is currently attempting (unsuccessfully) to retire.

Suzi lives in London with her husband. You can see her work at her website, Suzi Clarke - Costumier.

Vicky Clarke

Vicky Clarke is a writer, housewife, bellydancer, and general creative rebel who's wrestling with the beginnings of the green revolution. Living sustainably isn't easy, so she's been getting back in touch with her inner hippy and learning lots about recycling, reusing and economising. That's where the sewing machine came in.

"I have a figure so impressively unfashionable that Renaissance painters would have been breaking down my door," Vicky says. So her "holy grail" is not a single garment; it's to bring back out of history patterns and styles that flatter women with curves, and make them practical and wearable for today. She want to unite the best of today's techniques and fabrics with the best of history's wisdom to make clothes that are practical, stylish and compatible with modern life.

Vicky lives in Cambridge, UK, along with her partner and a quite ridiculous collection of craft materials.

Loren Dearborn

Loren Dearborn is a costumer and a history buff whose main interest is 18th and 19th century costumes and historic movie costumes. She is a member of the Costume Society of America and the Victorian Society of Falls Church and a frequent attendee at Costume Con and Costume College. She has a particular passion for period hats and shoes. She spends her free time going to costume events, sewing with friends, reading Victorian sensation fiction, watching costume flicks, having tea, collecting fabric and reading biographies - usually of 18th or 19th century personalities. You can read about her costumes on her livejournal.

A California native, Loren lives with her husband, two sons and assorted barn cats in a 1750/1990 house in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, USA.

Carolyn Dowdell

Carolyn's sewing and historical costume interests first came together during a BFA in Visual Art - she took all of the costuming courses available through the Theatre Department.  At first she thought she wanted to be a costume designer, but it didn’t take long to realize that her true passion lay in actual historical garments and their construction. 

Her most recent project, completed as part of her Master's degree, consisted of the accurate reproduction of middle class English women’s garments from the time period c.1750-70. In addition to reproducing a complete wardrobe of garments using accurate materials and techniques, she also replicated certain aspects of an early modern seamstress’s working experience, dressing in clothing of the time, working only by natural light or candlelight and sitting on an uncushioned wooden kitchen chair. She kept a blog of the specifics of the project along with thoughts, impressions, and questions that arose from the experience at Rockin' the Rococo.

Serena Dyer

Serena has been studying historical costume since 1999, developing her knowledge through reproduction and recreation. She has spent time in the Textiles department at Christie's, as well as with the Snowshill Costume collection.

She is currently working towards a BA in History and History of Art, which she hopes to develop into an MA in Fashion History. Her voluntary work with the National Trust has led to the development of her historical interpretation skills, which she now does regularly at Wimpole Hall, appearing as various characters from the Hall's history.

Her skills as a performer have also been developed through her acting, where she has appeared in roles such as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lucy in Alan Ayckbourn's Confussions and Irena in Chekhov's Three Sisters.
See more of her work on her website, Dressing History.

Lindsey Eastman

Lindsey Eastman is a customer service representative by day and passionate historical costumer by night. She began teaching herself to make historical costumes in 2003 and rounded out her education with her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Design and Production from Illinois State University. During her college studies, Lindsey costumed everything from Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore (her personal favorite) to modern dance pieces.

Through her work in theatre Lindsey has dabbled in many periods, but her true love is the mid to late 16th Century in England and various regions of Italy. These periods fit well with her unusual love for making gowns from curtains. Lindsey lives in Central Illinois with her stacks of fabric and carpet full of pins. Her work can be seen at www.changeablethreads.net.

Diana Habra of Renaissance Fabrics

Diana Habra has been a costumer since 1992. She started sewing when she joined a small Renaissance Faire group. "It was a struggle [making my own clothing]," she says, "but I loved the results, and that was how I caught the costuming bug."

Since that time, she has been involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire, and various Victorian and themed dance balls. She has created costumes from the 11th to the 19th centuries and had had fun doing them all, but her speciality is fabrics.

Diana's website Renaissance Fabrics is a source run for costumers by costumers. It specializes in wool, silk, linen, and cotton fabrics for historical costumers, but also carries brocade fabrics for that very special fancy gown or doublet as well as historical trim, lace, patterns, buttons, and books.

Jema Hewitt of Kindred Spirits

Jema Hewitt has over twenty years' experience in the film, bridal, television, museum and theatre costuming business. A published author in jewellery design and regular contributor to crafts and bridal magazines, she lectures at universities around the UK and runs workshops courses from her studio in Nottingham, England.

Her website, on which you can find details of all of the above, can be found here.

Alyxx Ianetta

Sarah Lorraine

Sarah Lorraine is an accomplished costumer and Fashion Design Instructor at the International Academy of Design & Technology in Sacramento, California. She has taught at the Costumer’s Guild West’s annual “Costume College”, and she participates with the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild and the Society for Creative Anachronism as well as making it to the occasional Renaissance Faire. She is also a member of the Societe des Lumières, a dedicated group of fans of eighteenth century France who meet regularly in costume to discuss its customs and its politics whilst eating fine French food by candlelight.

Sarah started costuming around the age of 12, but considers her gold brocade gown, made at age 23, to be her first "real" garment. The products of the intervening years are locked in a secure location where no one is allowed to go.

Sarah believes that good sewing is all in the amount of dedication you want to invest in it. “As with anything, it takes practice to get good at making an outfit that looks and feels like clothing, not just a costume,” she says. “Expect to rip out lots of seams. Expect to cuss like a trucker. Expect to throw some tantrums. But in the end, if you stick with it, it becomes easier and easier.”

Sarah maintains a website of her work at www.modehistorique.com.

Jason MacLochlainn

Jason started sewing thirteen years ago as a side hobby, fueling his thirst for living history. Having grown up in historically rich areas such as the Highlands of Scotland and South Oxfordshire/ Berkshire Downs, Jason has always been facinated by history, culminating in attending University for Archaeology. At nineteen, Jason left for America and was soon drawn into American living history. He bought a sewing machine and never looked back.

Nowadays Jason lives in the Netherlands with his wife Manon. Together, they own Victorian Elegance and Prudence Mae Patterns, where Jason is currently putting together a pattern line of his own. When he is not drafting patterns, he is in the research phase of writing a book, preserving tailoring techniques and systems of the Victorian and Edwardian period.

Lynn McMasters

Lynn has sewn almost all her life but her output has changed over the years. From everyday clothes, home decor and crafts she graduated to dressing porcelain dolls in period clothes, marketing and selling the patterns. She has made educational puppets and costumes for such places as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Point Reyes National Sea Shore and Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens.

In the last decade she has become expert in recreating full size Renaissance costumes. While she loves clothing from any period or class, her favourite is Elizabethan court dress because “It’s difficult to over-embellish!” She loves embroidery, elaborate trims, real pearls and making hats; but above all making hats. This love of hats has lead to a line of hat patterns and the teaching of many millinery related workshops. More of her work can be seen at www.lynnmcmasters.com.

Lynn lives and works on California’s Central Coast.

Tanya Rohler

Tanya has been a professional corsetmaker for a number of years, making corsets for several prominent people in Germany. Her work avoids the traditional corsetry fabrics, preferring to experiment with wool boucles, tweeds and suiting fabrics as well as quilting cottons. She never makes the same corset twice.

Tanya’s background is in Art History, although she always focused more on the clothing in the paintings than on the actual painting. The inspiration that steered her specifically into corsetry came from her grandmother, who always wore a corset - to the point of even being buried in one!

Originally from Winnipeg in Canada, Tanya now lives in Wittlich, a small town in the state of Rheinland Pfalz in Germany, with her husband and young son.

Melanie Schuessler

Melanie has years of experience as a professional costume designer and costume technician. She holds an MFA in Costume Design from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a BA in History from Rice University, Houston, Texas, and though her passion extends to all periods of fashion history, her research focuses on the clothing of 16th-century England.

Melanie’s professional design credits in the theatre spread from Milwaukee, USA to Dublin, Ireland. On the technical side of costuming, she has worked as a professional Cutter/Draper for dozens of shows at companies including Skylight Opera Theatre, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Next Act Theatre, and Madison Repertory Theatre. Her research on historic clothing ranges from the creation of a portrait database to the examination of Tudor-era letters for clothing references and also includes hands-on experiments to determine how clothing was built and worn in the past. More of her work can be seen at her website.

Laurie Tavan of Daze of Laur

Laurie was thrust into the costuming world when asked to not only play Mary, Queen of Scots but also to design and construct a gown fit for such a queen. Having dabbled in sewing her whole life, she found her passion in historical garments. Soon she found herself gowning other Queens and nobles at events throughout Northern California. As news of her skills spread through the historical re-enactment community, more and more commissions and awards came her way. Her home sewing studio soon colonized the living room and annexed the kitchen.

That's when she went pro. With a reputation for unrivalled attention to detail and uncompromising standards, she started a website, took commissions, and now maintains a waiting list for gowns, accessories, and corsets, her fondest specialty.

Outside the sewing studio, Laurie SCUBA dives in Monterey and worldwide, fences frequently in the classical Italian style and dances almost every night of the week. She lives in Northern California with her husband Jeremy and a parrot named Percival.

Kendra Van Cleave

Kendra Van Cleave has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and is an accomplished historical costumer. She has recently occupied the role of President of the Greater Bay Area Costumers' Guild and teaches at the Costumer’s Guild West’s annual “Costume College”. Kendra has performed with Bella Donna Venetian Courtesans since 2005. She has sewn for profit before, and could be talked into it again for the right amount of money.

Her current emphasis is on costume of the nineteenth century, although she's particularly fascinated by the 1770s-1790s, 1870s, and 1910s. She has an almost unnatural passion for stripes, thinks that all clothing should include box pleats and massive amounts of piping, and would be inordinately happy to spend her life on the couch hand sewing. Her DVD collection includes an entire shelf of what is known to her husband as 'Girlie Costume Films.' She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. See more of her work at www.demodecouture.com.

Diane Yoshitomi

Diane Yoshitomi has felt at home with a needle and thread in hand since age 9, when her grandmother taught her to embroider. She regards her first project, Mr and Mrs pillowcases embellished with simple lazy daisy stitches and French knots, as just the first step on a lifetime journey of exploration into the wonderful world of fabric, line, color, and the history of costume.

In her twenties and thirties she made nearly all of her clothes and, when she entered fashion design school in the 1970s, she designed them as well. It was not until the 1990s, as a docent at a Victorian historic house museum, that she stumbled into another dream world for the fashion conscious,  that of historical costuming. Then in 2004 she joined Costumer's Guild West and attended her first Costume College, finding it so exhilarating that she immediately joined both the faculty and staff of Costume College.

In addition to making costumes, though she prefers to call hers "period dress," she loves to dance in them, and now focuses more attention on 19th century ballgowns and early 20th century dance frocks than to daytime attire, though the prospect of a very special tea can always redirect that attention.

Recalling James Lipton's famous questions at the end of every episode of Inside the Actors' Studio, here is what she would reply to the last of those questions: If there is a heaven and you were to meet St. Peter at the gates, what would you like him to say to you? "Nice dress! Did you make it?" To which she would reply, "But of course."