Lorna Clarke

The Lorna Clarke Collection is a historically significant archive held by the RMIT Design Archives and forms a central case study in my research. The collection comprises a series of workbooks developed by a fashion student at the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy in the early 1940s. These workbooks offer a rare glimpse into fashion education of the era and embody the ingenuity and resourcefulness of wartime “Make-Do-and-Mend” ideology, with designs that reflect the silhouettes, detailing, materials, and colour palettes characteristic of the 1940s.

My research engages closely with Clarke’s original illustrations, notes, and pattern drafts to examine the relationship between fashion illustration, drafting, and the creation of physical patterns as the foundation of garment construction. Through this work, I investigate how technical training, domestic labour, and resource-constrained creativity intersected in mid‑twentieth‑century fashion education.

Building on this historical and pedagogical context, I use Clarke’s designs as a basis for contemporary practice-led inquiry into pattern drafting and pattern cutting. This involves working with full-scale bodice blocks and scaled blocks (quarter and half scale) to replicate and reinterpret notable pieces from the collection. Techniques such as dart manipulation, slashing and spreading, and the redistribution of primary darts are explored as both historical methods and ongoing design strategies.

Although a public workshop developed around this material was postponed, the research continues to evolve through studio experimentation, curriculum development, and scholarly writing. By situating the Lorna Clarke Collection within broader histories of fashion, gendered labour, and vernacular sustainability, this project seeks to understand how historic techniques—and the often-unrecognised expertise of women’s domestic making—can inform contemporary approaches to fashion design, repair, and circular practice.

This project is in two parts: Archive (images by Simone Rule & Workshop half-scale blocks and patterns inspired by Clarke's student workbooks).