Meet Robin Pavlosky
Fashion Museum Curator
Challenges
Rachel: What's the biggest challenge you've faced on your job? Was there ever a time when you ran into something, and thought, I can't do it?
Robin: The biggest challenge? Finding the history of the snap. A student came in one day and said "Do you know how the snap was invented? I need to know how the snap was invented and by whom and why." And I looked at them with a blank face and said, "I don't know." Then I had to find out because I can't leave things alone like that. So, about three weeks later I knew everything I ever wanted to know about the snap. And I have a file about an inch thick to prove it.
Rachel: So, what's the scoop on the snap? What did you find out about it?
Robin: Well, the snap was first created by a glovemaker in France and he invented it as a catch for gloves.
And, at first it didn't catch on because it wasn't very tight. The snaps didn't close very tight. So it didn't really catch on for women's clothes for another 30 or 40 years -- about the late 1920's. And now snaps are everywhere.
Another challenge, more recently was, who invented the clothes hangar. As far as we can tell, the Quakers did. And then nobody liked them.
Rachel: Um -nobody liked the hangars or the Quakers?
Robin: The hangars. [GRIN] People had a lot of very heavy clothes. The women wore very full skirts and hangars didn't work for clothes in the 1800's. Clothes were better stored flat. They just kept better. They looked better.
Hangars didn't catch on till the 1920's when clothes became lighter in weight and smaller in circumference. Cabinet makers actually started making cabinets with bars in them to put hangars on.
Rachel: Do you ever run into prejudice against women?
Robin: I've been very lucky. There isn't a lot of prejudice against women in the fashion industry because it is so heavily inundated by women already. In some of the other aspects of it, for example, in costume design, it is primarily a women's field. Actually, the only thing I can think of were comments made by male actors when I had to dress them. Some actors are uncomfortable with female dressers. So sometimes, they get a little bit strange.
Rachel: So, what do you do to handle it?
Robin: Tell them to shut up and get dressed. [GRIN] Very often, it's just a matter of having a good sense of humor and making them comfortable. Then they're fine.
Rachel: What do you think is cool about being a woman today?
Robin: I think now we have a lot of choices. We don't have to stick to careers that are primarily women's careers. Careers that were blocked from women even approaching ten years ago are open and available.
Also, I think we have a lot of choices about other parts of our lives.
It used to be if you were 22 and not married you were considered obsolete. That's not true anymore, and that's important. You can do things other than just be a mother and a wife. You can have a career. And this was frowned on 20 years ago. But now, you can do that. And you can be comfortable with that.
When I was growing up, women were mothers first and then they had a career. Now, you can do it the other way around. I think that's good. You can do either, you can lead your life either way. You can become a mother and wife and have a career at the same time. You can be a mother and wife and have a career later. Or you can have a career first and be a mother and wife later on. You just have so many more choices about who and how to be.
Rachel: What do you like about your job?
Robin: You never get bored. There's always 324 things to do. And, you get to work with history and creativity and students all at the same time. The fact is, I'm a costume history fanatic. I absolutely adore working with the costume collection and being able to have that resource to teach other people about costume history and the history of fashion.
Rachel: What do you like the least about your job?
Robin: When students ask me questions and I have no idea how to answer them -- like who invented the snap? Who invented the hangar? And then we get to find out.
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Copyright © 2006 A Girl's World Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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