Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design
Abby Lillethun, Ph.D., Ohio StateUniversity, 2002.
Quinn 310, phone (401) 874–5858. lillethun@uri.edu
Abby’s
teaching at URI centers on the cultural aspects of textiles and dress, including
historic and ethnic dress, trend forecasting, and fashion theory. Courses that
she regularly teaches are: TMD224 (Culture, Dress and Appearance); TMD 424
(Fashion Theory and Analysis; TMD500 (Ethnic Dress and Textiles); and TMD 524
(Cultural Aspects of Dress). Adress historian, she has also taught TMD 441
(History of Western Dress).
Before joining URI in 2002, Abby worked in the fashion industry in NYC sourcing textiles and textile designs for private label apparel companies. She also worked in the theatrical field (she has an MFA in Theatre Design), most notably supervising menswear production for ballets, films, and Broadway. Her designs for theatre and dance costumes have been seen in academic and professional venues in Paris, London, Cairo, and across Germany and the southeast U.S.
Abby’s research program has two major areas of inquiry, the Aegean Bronze Age and cross-cultural exchange in the twentieth century from Asian to the Western textiles and dress. Design and the process of design change within specific cultural contexts are central to both research topics. She develops garment recreations through archaeology-by-experiment to further understanding of Minoan dress and Bronze Age technology in the Aegean region. This research currently focuses on iterations of Javanese elements in Western textiles and dress of thelate19th and early 20th centuries.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
· Welters, Linda and Abby Lillethun, eds. The Fashion Reader. Oxford: Berg (in press for2007 publication).
· Lillethun, Abby. “ApparentMovement and Character of Pleated Cloth in Bronze Age Aegean Flounced Skirts.” Endymatologika3 (in press).
· Lillethun, Abby. “Javanesque Effects: Appropriation of Batik and Its Transformations in Modern Textiles.” In Appropriation, Acculturation, Transformation: Proceedings ofthe Textile Society of America’s Ninth Biennial Symposium, Oakland, CA, 6–9October, 2004. CD, 2005.
· Lillethun, Abby. “TheReconstruction of Aegean Cloth and Clothing.” In METRON: Measuring the Aegean Age, Proceedings of the 9th International Aegean Conference, Yale University, (18–21 April 2002), edited byKaren Polinger Foster and Robert Laffineur, 463–472, xcv–xcvii. Aegaeum 24:Annales d’archéologie égéenne de l’Université de Liège et UT–PASP. Belgium:Kliemo, 2003.
· Lennon, Sharron J., Abby Lillethun, and Sandra S. Buckland. “Attitudes Toward Social Comparison as a Function of Self Esteem: Idealized Appearance and Body Image.” Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 27(4) 1999: 379–405.
PRESENTATIONS at PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS with ABSTRACTS
· Lillethun, Abby, Sandra Buckland and Sharron Lennon. “Attitudes of Social Comparison as a Function of Self Esteem.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the International Textiles and Apparel Association, Minneapolis, MN, 19–23 October,1994. Ed. Christine M. Ladisch. International Textiles and Apparel Association, Inc., 1996: 133.
· Damhorst, Mary Lynn,Jane Farrell–Beck, Teresa Janus, Abby Lillethun, Gordon Gray, Margaret Rucker, Patricia A. Kimle, and Harriet McLeod. Panel: “Corporate Casual: An Interdisciplinary Look or the Emperor has New Clothes.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the International Textiles and Apparel Association, Inc., Banff, Alberta, Canada,1–4, August 1996. Ed. Christine M. Ladisch. International Textiles and Apparel Association, Inc., 1996: 22–5.
· Lillethun, Abby. “Bodice Construction Observed in Bronze Age Theran Frescoes of a Female Rite of Passage.” Celebrating the Seasons: Dressing for Life’s Rites of Passage, Symposium Abstracts of the Costume Society of America, 22ndAnnual Meeting and Symposium, Atlanta, GA, May 29–June 2, 1996. Ed. Anne Sullivan Waskom. The Costume Society of America, 1996: 20.
· Lillethun, Abby. “Contré le luxe féminin by F.T. Marinetti: An English Translation with Context and Commentary.” Confluences: Fashioning International Perspectives, Conference of the Université de la Mode and the International Textiles and Apparel Association, Lyon, France, 10–12 July 1997. Lyons, France: ITAA and Université de la Mode, 1997: 153.
· Lillethun, Abby. “Javanese Influence in American Women’s Fashion in the Early Twentieth Century.” Gateways of Fashion: Influence of Global Trading, Symposium Abstracts of the Costume Society of America, 29th Annual Meeting and Symposium, Charleston, SC, 12–14 June, 2003. The Costume Society of America, 2003: 3.
· Lillethun, Abby.“ Pieter Mijer: Early 20th-Century Author, Textile Designer, Artist,and Furniture Designer.” 30th Annual Meeting and Symposium Abstracts: 20thCentury Design: Fashion, Interiors, Architecture and the Performing Arts, Houston, TX, 25–29 May. The Costume Society of America, 2004: 25.
· Lillethun, Abby.“ Apparent Movement and Character of Pleated Cloth in Bronze Age Aegean Skirt Flounces.” Pleats and Folds: Multiple Meanings, 21–25 June 2004, Athens. Athens and Napflion, Greece: Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, 2004: 10–1.
· Lillethun, Abby and Elizabeth Barber. “The Reconstruction of Aegean Cloth and Clothing.” METRON: Measuring the Aegean Bronze Age: 9th International Aegean Conference, April 18–21, 2002, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
On the steps of Harajuku Station, Tokyo, July 2005