Andrew Trembley wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Good evening to all of you and hope my series of questioning doesn't
seem silly but for some reason I am still having trouble trying to
decypher the difference between an amateur costumer (myself, one who
has a general knowledge of a topic) and one who is a serious
costumer, or professional.
A professional costumer is someone who loves costuming so much they're
willing to work for far less money than they're worth so they don't
have to do something else. It often involves a lot of production
grunt-work making higher-margin dull and functional items so one can
afford the time spent on fancy artistic projects.
An amateur costumer is anyone who does it for the fun and the art,
regardless of skill level, without looking for financial compensation.
Amateurs also can choose to only do the fun projects.
I don't think the term "professional costumer" and "serious costumer"
are synonymous, and neither of them are synonymous with "costume
scholar" --although all three can and do overlap.
I know "professionals" who, frankly, are not nearly as talented as some
amateurs I know. I know professionals whose focus is outside the
serious study of historical clothing and who are thus not costume
scholars. I know amateurs who are costume scholars, as well as a few
who make some money off of costuming but not anything approaching a real
salary. Plenty of these are "serious" - but they're not professionals.
I also know costume scholars who are not in any real sense of the word
costumers. They study historic clothing and its aspects (textiles,
etc.) but do not make costumes.
And I think the lines between all of these are not clear. They're more
like three intersecting circles describing one's involvement in costume
and costume research.
I think we need to be careful about terminology. Amateur has
unfortunately lost most of its original, lovely meaning and is sometimes
misinterpreted as "unknowledgeable, second-rate, slapdash, etc." The
academic world has now evolved the term "independent scholar", which is
no longer quite the pejorative it once was.
Susan
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