Students sew wedding dress
In a new class this semester, seven students are discovering first-hand the complexities of sewing a complete wedding gown from beginning to end, and at the same time are learning about the culture surrounding the wedding gown. Susan Cox, Asst. Professor of Theatre and Design, teaches the class. The purpose of the class is to produce a wedding dress for one of the students. The students needed no previous experience, so they have much to learn in each careful step in producing the dresses.
These steps include patterning, sewing, and fitting the dresses in addition to placing the decorative beading and completing other finishing touches. “They’re working hard,” Cox said. “But at the end they’ll have a wedding dress.” Cox instructs the students about the culture and significance of the wedding dress while the students learn to manually create the gown. “I am teaching them about the history of the wedding dress in America,” Cox said.
“It isn’t that old.” According to Cox, the iconic image of the flowing white dress began as recently as 1960. In addition to the history of the wedding dress, Cox is also teaching about its significance in literature and art history. The wedding gown has become an icon that has played a prominent role in both these areas, according to Cox. Students are taking the class for either 2 or 3 credits.
Besides the 3-hour class once a week, however, Cox said that the students have to put in a lot of additional time and effort to make the gown. The wedding gown is a major cultural symbol and creating it by hand is a serious enterprise.