By Cate Lecuyer
BEVERLY — Barbara Broudo was never one of those teenagers who wore the latest fashion trends.
"I couldn't afford it," she said.
But she noticed what everyone else had on, and cared about her appearance and dress to the point where she majored in fashion design in college. Soon after, she got a job teaching fashion design at Endicott College.
"That was back in 1963. I taught here for 32 years," she said.
Broudo left teaching to go into museum work, and then returned to Endicott six years ago as director of the college's archives and museum. Earlier this month, she was named president of the Costume Society of America.
We talked with Broudo talks about her love for fashion, her role as leader of a national organization based in New Orleans, and how it's all come together for her at Endicott College.
How did you get involved with the organization?
I retired from teaching 12, 13 years ago and went into museum work. One of the things I taught was the history of Western dress I and got very involved with that. I loved it. So I joined the Costume Society of America. I've been a member for 26 years.
And you've just been named the president. What do you do?
Everything. Well, maybe that's not the way to put it. I oversee everything. I see the big picture and make sure everything is going in the right direction.
What direction is that?
The main thing we try to do is stimulate the study of dress and appearance through education, research, preservation and design. We don't collect. We're an organization to educate people and network. We all have a passion for dress and appearance, and we love to share that information.
What sort of things do people want to know?
We get questions from mothers doing a costume for a play for their child, to writers that need information about a particular topic of dress. When you hear the word costume, people have a preconceived idea, and it's not that at all. It's what we did wear, what we are wearing now, and what we will wear.
Do you have a favorite period of dress?
I particularly like 20th-century dress. It dates from about 1900 to present day. It's a period in our clothing history where major changes and more rapid changes took place in the silhouettes.
Like what?
Paul Poiret got women out of corsets in 1912 or 1913. Yves St. Laurent made wearing pants for women normal in the 1970s. Well, not really normal, but before it was considered very casual. We also had all kinds of wonderful designers: Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta.
Do you have a favorite designer?
Yves St. Laurent is probably one of my favorites because of his endurance. He would take what previous designers have done, pull it together, and put his own signature on it. He just died about two weeks ago in Paris.
What's an example of something he's done?
He took the men's tuxedo and redefined it for women. Now, a suit jacket for women is a classic.
You're also the archives and museum director at Endicott College. Do your ties with the Costume Society of America come in handy?
When I do exhibits here, what I've found is people love to see mannikins. So I always try to incorporate some kind of dress in my exhibits. For one exhibit on the first five years of the college, I was able to get on loan a costume of an evening dress from the 1940s. For another exhibit on student life, we set up different dorm rooms. One was from the 1950s, and we had a photograph to look at and duplicated it. Then I did it so it was a Saturday afternoon, where a student was getting ready to go to a dance in a 1950s evening gown. The other dorm room was current day, and we had the students pose. Needless to say, it was in sweatshirts.
Times have certainly changed. Do you have any costumes that relate to Endicott in your collection?
The students back in the 1950s used to wear white wool blazers with the college emblem on it. I have a couple of those — one from the 1940s, which is gray, and two from the 1950s and '60s, which are white — and then they were discontinued. It gives you a sense of what the colleges were like at that time. It stands out as a key collegiate item.
Now, obviously, the archives cover more than changes in dress and style.
The archives cover the entire history of the college. I've tried to organize the information so it can be retrieved easily and quickly. One time an alumna called and said her mother had passed away and wanted pictures of her from her time at Endicott College. I had them, and I had identified her.
It sounds like you enjoy your job at Endicott and your role in the Costume Society of America.
To me, it is my passion. I have made professional contacts throughout the world, wonderful lifetime friends, and knowledge beyond.
