LYDIA TURCIOS
Art Director
The Department of Theatre and Dance hosted a Costume Cleanout last week, Friday Oct. 15, to fundraise for the Laurel Walford Costume Scholarship. The event lasted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and took place in the Rockfeller Arts Center Atrium.
The event was a success; the atrium filled up with prospective buyers for the racks of old theater costumes and bric a brac. The price tag was well within the means for the average student was encouraged to stuff as many items as you could into a standard sized reusable grocery bag for 10 dollars per container.
Many of the pieces had names scribbled on the tags, some crossed out, some intact. Besides the logic of getting a bunch of new clothes at once for cheap, would it not be nice to bring home some mementos of fellow students’ stints in the theatre department? It might not be apparent when you look at them, but there were a lot of memories hanging off of the racks. It seems appropriate for the costumes to benefit the theatre department one more time by bringing in revenue for a scholarship.
Clothing exchanges and blowouts like the Costume Cleanout encourage sustainable fashion over fast fashion. Sustainable fashion is a movement in which the end goal is to produce garments and accessories in a more socially and ecologically responsible manner. Fast fashion puts production over being responsible for fair labor practices and environmental health. Swapping clothes, thrifting and giving away large amounts of garments lessens the amount of fast fashion accrued by individual people and reduces its overall effect on the fashion and textile industry.
The garment selection available at the cleanout was extensive. Including accessories like caps, shoes and gloves to actual outfit pieces such as piles and piles of jeans and dresses. Not only was it a wide selection of clothes to round a wardrobe out in, the size range was accessible to a wide range of body types and sizes. That sort of accessibility can be hard to come by for cheap or without resorting to fast fashion.
A significant amount of the garments could be used as everyday wear and such pieces were taken more quickly. But the flashier pieces have their place too. Do not be surprised if Halloween on campus incorporates brightly colored capes, big shiny buttons and period dresses this year.