IU Symposium on Dress and Adornment

Thanks go to everyone who participated on Friday [4-18] and Saturday [4-19] in the symposium on dress and adornment that Suzanne Godby Ingalsbe, Pravina Shukla and I organized. The paper presentations were diverse, interesting and innovative and it was exciting to talk shop with faculty and students drawn from the IU departments of anthropology, apparel merchandising and interior design, folklore and ethnomusicology and history of art. In addition to the faculty and student presenters, thanks also go to those who came to take in, and comment upon, the presentations. While the Saturday events took place at the IU Memorial Union, the presentations on Friday were held at the Wylie House Museum, where our host was the museum’s director Jo Burgess and our kickoff activity was a tour (by Suzanne) of the new exhibition What Women Wore: Clothing and Accessories of the 19th Century. The Friday papers were a special treat, delivered as they were in the first floor of Wylie House. The house was dark enough to see the slides of the presenters, but it was open to the breeze and to just enough sunlight on a beautiful Bloomington afternoon. The experience was a great reminder of what a wonderful resource Wylie House is for the IU community.