SEMO INSTRUCTOR'S ROLES, COSTUMES HELP FASHION CLASSES LEARN OF HISTORY

An instructor in Southeast Missouri State University's department of human environmental studies literally puts body and soul into her teaching of fashion history.

Rachel Thomson will become "Lady Rachel" today when she presents a lecture on the Renaissance period to her Historical Perspectives of Fashion class, which covers the history of clothing since 5000 B.C. During the class, Thomson will wear an elaborate velvet-like and brocade gown trimmed in gold braid and beads that she designed and created.

Thomson, a first-year instructor at Southeast, said she began using costumes as part of her lectures eight years ago. The idea evolved from her days as a graduate teaching assistant at Kansas State University.

"I was having trouble explaining how the Greeks formed a garment from one piece of material, so I draped it around a student," Thomson explained.

After that, she began donning costumes from the Ancient Greek period, the Renaissance period, the 1830s and the 1960s, in order to breathe life into her lectures. The costumes were carefully researched and designed by Thomson to be as authentic as possible to the time period represented.

"I didn't copy the costumes from a picture, but I tried to put myself back into that time period," she said.

The Renaissance gown took her three months to complete and was the most time-consuming costume to create, she said.

"I was as authentic as possible, but I did use a sewing machine; otherwise, it would have been too time-consuming," Thomson said.

She completed a cotton muslin white and rose-trimmed Greek tunic in one month and a 1830s cotton and natural lace design in six weeks.

Her work apparently is paying off: Thomson says her lectures in costume help students retain information.

"I know this sounds unreal, but I have never had a student miss a question regarding the costumes on a test," she said.

Students enrolled in the course learn the basic concept that fashion repeats itself

"Nothing in fashion is new; it is just reworked in various ways," she said. "All the controversy surrounding Madonna wearing underwear on the outside of her clothing was over something that had been done before. During the Renaissance, people's undergarments showed at the neck and arms of their clothing."

Thomson said that wearing the costumes makes her feel she is a part of a particular time period. She says the Renaissance costume is her favorite, but she feels an emotional attachment to the 1960s military uniform.

"That uniform brings back floods of memories of the time I was a TWA flight attendant on flights from Travis Air Force Base in California to Vietnam during the war," she said.

The purpose of the costumes and the lectures is to teach students about the impact of society on art, said Thomson.

"My hope is that students will realize that historic people were real people who laughed and cried and sang and made love and got angry," she said.

Thomson wore the Greek tunic earlier in the semester and will wear the 1830s and 1960s costumes during her lectures over those time periods later this semester.