Textile And Clothing Historians

The textile and clothing historians careers include costume curators, theatrical costuming personnel, wardrobe helpers, and wardrobe designers.

Costume Curator:

Duties: These individuals are responsible for the items in a museum’s collection. In this case the items are costumes. These individuals must identify items for display, select items to be added to a collection, and maintain the items in the collection in good condition. Other duties may include design and presentation of exhibits, the building of exhibits and the preservation work that goes along with maintaining the costume exhibit.

Qualifications: These individuals need computer skills and the ability to work with electronic databases. They may also be responsible for posting information on the internet, and as a result must be familiar with digital imaging, scanning technology, and copyright law.

Education: At the minimum a high school education. Degrees at the undergraduate level can include a variety of subjects, such as art, chemistry and physics. Degrees at the graduate level should include specialties in art, history, art history, museum studies, archival administration, and library science for curators, depending upon what type of curator the individual would like to be. Graduate degrees will allow the individual to advance to higher levels of management such as museum director.

Theatrical Costuming:

Duties: The individual that engages in this activity is responsible for creating the costumes for a particular theatrical production true to the period that the production is set in.

Qualifications: The qualifications for these positions include a background in textiles.

Education: At the minimum a high school education. There are also workshops or courses offered through colleges and universities, professional organizations or private organizations.

For more information about textile and clothing historians see the book Textiles by Sara J. Kadolph which can be found at amazon.com

Information can also be found about curators in the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

For more information on theatrical costuming click on the link here for The Costume Page

For information about other sewing related occupations, click the links below.

Dry Cleaning
Commercial Laundries
Textile Research
Textile Design
Textile Production
Textile Administration
Textile Marketing and Sales
Sewing Business
Store Operations

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