New faculty: Joycelyn Falsken constructs the past and the future

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

For 15 years, Joycelyn Falsken owned and operated Joycelyn Designs, a historic reproduction clothing company serving historic reenactors. She specialized in the 16th century era (think Renaissance Festivals and “Shakespeare in Love”) but also reproduced garments inspired by other eras such as the 18th century and the crinoline-and-bustle periods of the 19th century.

She constructs everything from the skin out to reproduce a historically accurate look, including corsets, hoop skirts, hats and gloves.

“The challenge was to interpret the real costumes of the day from available resources. For example, some 18th century women’s portraits were painted in an imagined romantic pastoral costume, not in what was actually worn in society,” she said. Falsken is an assistant professor in Apparel Design.

The experience – and her passion for construction and detail – led her to a master’s degree at San Francisco State University. She taught clothing construction, patternmaking, millinery, costuming and historic fashion at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose and at San Francisco State.

Falsken studied for her doctorate at Ohio State University. Her dissertation is on the business, design and construction techniques of Charles Kleibacker, New York designer in the 1960s and ’70s.

He specialized in the bias cut dress and was the first to produce garments in Qiana, a luxury nylon fabric DuPont developed in 1968.

“He was before his time,” she said of Kleibacker. The soft flowing designs he was producing as early as 1963 became very popular in the 1970s.

Falsken will teach traditional flat pattern construction and computerized pattern construction. She and husband Gary, an IT professional and Silicon Valley alum, have three children. The youngest is in the Army in Fairbanks, Alaska; their oldest son works in California and their daughter has moved to Manhattan with them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 and is filed under Dean's Blog.