Attracting Costume Design Students at Comic-Con
Some creative types gather round the fire hydrant at Comic-Con
If you were looking for new students to attend your costume design classes, where would you go?
If you said Comic-Con, the annual comic book and popular arts convention held July 12 to July 15 in San Diego, you'd be right. That is where Kathryn Hagen, the new chair of the fashion design department at Woodbury University, went to rustle up some new students.
The school in Burbank, Calif., has always had undergraduate classes in costume design, but Woodbury plans to add a master's degree in costume design in 2014. The fashion department would like to see more students enroll in the costume design courses that could land them jobs in Hollywood.
First, the school hosted a dinner at the Westin Hotel for about 40 members of the Costume Designers Guild. Then students passed out brochures at the four-day conference touting what the school offers. Many of the convention's attendees were already wearing some kind of creative garb that would make them perfect potential costume designers.
Hagen sat with costume designers at an autograph table where the curious were able to grab a signature from one of their favorite costume designers. Later the costume designers did a question-and-answer session about what it was like to be a costume designer.
Designers included Audrey Fisher, the prinicipal costume designer for the TV series "True Blood," Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko, who did costumes for the TV program "Big Love," Jenni Gullett, who created costumes for the TV series "Fringe," and Liuba Randolph, who worked on the TV show "Glee" and is teaching costume design and fashion illustration at Woodbury this fall semester.
"It was a great networking opportunity," Hagen said.
She said they'll be back next year.
Liuba Randolph with Comic-Con attendee creatively attired in a costume
Kathryn Hagen, Jenni Gullett, Imogene Chayes, Audrey Fisher and Chrisi
Karvonides-Dushenko
