Spotlight on Grads: Research in Costume | Conversations on Dress | Costume Society of America

Costume Society of America is highlighting our emerging scholars. In this presentation, graduate students Ashley Baker from the University of Oregon and Jenny Leigh Du Puis from Cornell speak about their research and designs for performance costume. Deborah Nadoolman Landis is our celebrity guest moderator! Ashley Baker is a graduate student in her last year of the Costume Design MFA program at the University of Oregon. She earned her BFA in Costume Design and Technology from Central Washington University in 2016. Ashley has worked for companies such as Walt Disney World, Disneyland Resort, Cirque du Soleil, and Weston Playhouse Theatre Company. Jenny Leigh Du Puis is a PhD student at Cornell where she is combining her extensive professional career as a circus and theatrical costume designer and technician with her formal training in functional apparel design. Her dissertation research centers on the safety and function of attire worn for the extreme physical performance of circus arts, and uses mixed methods and design research practices to explore the history of circus costume, investigate the clothing designed and worn for today's circus performances, and develop ways to improve training clothes for the circus artists of tomorrow. She served as the 2019 ITAA Graduate Student Liaison, and is currently volunteering with the CSA Conversations on Dress series behind the scenes. Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis, PhD, David C. Copley Chair and Director, UCLA David C. Co