H28.0181 Lecture 2 Credits
Instructor(s): Kitty Leech
A cultural history of clothing from Mesopotamia through the Renaissance. Ever wonder what Julius Caesar was wearing on the Ides of March? Or what Cleopatra was wearing when she set out to seduce him? What about that antique actress and exotic dancer: Theodora in that Byzantine beauty pageant? What was the prize? The answers to these and other timeless sartorial questions are found as we wind our way through the closets of history. The class focuses on the periods most likely to be encountered in theatre today. We examine how ancient clothing is adapted to the modern sage and how it often becomes the basis for futuristic costumes. We also look at how the clothing we wear today reflects our own particular civilization. Appropriate (or scandalous) clothing is provided each week, so that students can discover the excesses and eccentricities of our ancestors for themselves. Field trips to exhibitions of clothing and other artifacts.
