Anne Bissonnette

Assistant Professor

Phone: 780-492-3604
Email: anne.bissonnette@ualberta.ca
Department: Human Ecology
Office: 325 Human Ecology
Office Hours: By appointment
Address: University of Alberta
325 Human Ecology
Edmonton, AB
Canada T6G 2N1

Job/Research Area: Assistant Professor, Material Culture and Curatorship, and Curator, Clothing and Textiles Collection.

Research Interests: Anne's work is in the field of material culture studies and costume history. Her areas of research consist of fashion in the late eighteenth century, contemporary design, cut and construction and on the convergence between art, fashion and science.

Full CV can be viewed here

Anne Bissonnette in the News

Diana's style influenced a generation of young Edmonton women 

Oprah shows weight's no barrier to looking classy, say Edmonton experts


Current Teaching

HECOL 268 Survey of Historic Dress
HECOL 360 Dress and Culture
HECOL 460 19th and 20th Century Dress
HECOL 668 Material Culture and Curatorship


Selected Publications

Bissonnette, Anne.  "Savoring the Process: Designer, Educator, and Curator Charles Kleibacker, 1921 - 2010".  Dress 38, no. 1 (October 2012): 1-23.

Bissonnette, Anne.  Review of Accessories to Modernity:  Fashion and the Feminine in Nineteenth-Century France, by Susan Hiner.  Dress 38, no. 1 (October 2012): 102-104.  

Bissonnette, Anne.  "Worn in Ohio: Research on Clothing and Early Settlement", American Folio 1, issue 2 (May 2012), 1 - 6.

Bissonnette, Anne. Charles Kleibacker entry in the Encyclopedia of Alabama, 2010 entry, online resource accessible at [www.encyclopediaofalabama.org].

Bissonnette, Anne. Chado Ralph Rucci. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Museum, 2005.

Steele, Valerie, ed. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. New York: Macmillan, 2005 ed. S.v. “Tea Gowns,” by Anne Bissonnette.

Bissonnette, Anne. “Fashion on the Ohio Frontier: 1790-1840.” Dress, 31 (2004): 57-71.

Bissonnette, Anne. Fashion on the Ohio Frontier: 1790-1840. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Museum, 2003.
*This exhibition catalogue was short-listed for the Costume Society of America's Millia Davenport Publication Award in 2005.

Bissonnette, Anne. “The 1870s Transformation of the Robe de Chambre.” In A Separate Sphere: Dressmakers in Cincinnati’s Golden Age, 1877-1922, ed. Cynthia Amnéus, 169-173. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press and the Cincinnati Art Museum, 2003.
*A Separate Sphere received the Ruth Emery Book Award from The Victorian Society of
America in 2004.

Bissonnette, Anne, and Betty Kirke. “Fashion Design.” In Computer Sciences, ed. Roger R. Flynn, 91-94. New York: Macmillan Reference USA; Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson/Gale, 2002.

Bissonnette, Anne. “Charles Kleibacker: Brilliance on the Bias.” Threads, March 2002: 66-69.

Bissonnette, Anne. “Introducing Isabel Toledo.” Threads, October/November 2000: 38-43.

Bissonnette, Anne, and Alix Browne. Toledo Toledo. New York: Visionaire Publishing, 2000.

Bissonnette, Anne. “At Home at Tea Time: The Distinctive Tea Gown of the Victorian Era.” Lady’s Gallery, vol. IV, issue 5 (1998): 6-14, 58.


Articles and Publications in Progress: 

Tea Gowns, Kent State University Press. Manuscript completed. Revisions underway.

“Dessiné d’après nature: Renditions from Life in the Journal des Dames et des Modes 1798 – 1799”:
article in progress.

“Doing History with Objects: Betty Kirke and Madeleine Vionnet,” article in the stage of near completion. Expect to be completed and submitted by August 2010. 


Awards

Design

  • Winner of the 2010 International Textiles and Apparel Association Award for Excellence, Target Market Design, for the design and production of "Canadian Greatcoat: Variable Winter Wear for Mild to Subarctic Temperatures." 

Exhibitions since 2009 

  • The exhibition "In Mother's Hood: Inuit Packing Dolls from Taloyoak" received a commendation from the jury of The Richard Martin Award for Excellence in the Exhibition of Costume at the National Symposium of the Costume Society of America in June 2011.
    Finalist, visual arts category, Northern Ohio Live's 2009 Awards of Achievement for "Rudi Gernreich: BOLD" (Kent State University Museum, July 2008 to May 2009).
  • The Costume Society of America's 2008 Richard Martin Award for Excellence in the Exhibition of Costume for the series of exhibitions "Fashion on the Ohio Frontier: 1790-1840" (The Ohio Art Council's Riffe Gallery, November 2006 to January 2007; Kent State University Museum, July 2003 to January 2004), "Hair: The Rise of Individuality, 1790-1840" (Decorative Arts Centre of Ohio, October 2006 to January 2007) and "The Age of Nudity" (Kent State University Museum, March 2006 to January 2007). 

Conference Participation Since 2009

  • Addressing the 1790s Neoclassical Transition in Dress through Dolley Payne Todd Madison's silk gown from the Greensboro Historical Museum.
    Costume Society of America (CSA) National Symposium, Las Vegas, NV, May 29 - June 3, 2013.
    Juried oral presentation.
  • What if Vionnet...?: Working with Betty Kirke to Unravel a Few Mysteries.
    CSA National Symposium, Las Vegas, NV, May 29 - June 3, 2013.  Juried research exhibit presentation   with Therese Martinez-Yu.   
  • Dessiné d’après nature: Renditions from Life in the Journal des Dames et des Modes 1798 – 1799.  CSA National Symposium, Atlanta, GA, May 31, 2012.  Juried oral presentation.
  • Best Face Forward:  Dress in Rural America as seen in the Photographs of Henry Clay Fleming.
    Massillon Museum, Massillon, OH, June 22, 2011.  Nominated speaker.
  • Scholar's Roundtable Panel Discussion: "Costume Scholarship in the 21st Century"
    CSA National Symposium, Boston, MA, June 10, 2011.  Nominated speaker.
  • Charles Kleibacker: Designer, Educator and Curator 1921 - 2010.
    CSA National Symposium, Boston, MA, June 9, 2011.  Juried oral presentation.
  • Ȇtre du Métier: Madeleine Vionnet, Betty Kirke and the Role of Craftmanship in Fashion Design and History.
  • Material Culture Institute Conference "Material Culture, Craft & Community:  Negotiating Objects Across Time & Place", University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, May 20, 2011.  Juried oral presentation.
  • Off with their Wigs!  Traditions and Revolutions in Hairstyles 1748 - 1804. 
  • Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Symposium "Costume Accessories: Head to Toe", DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Williamsburg, VA, March 15, 2011.  Invited speaker.
  • Doing History with Objects:  Betty Kirke and Madeleine Vionnet. 
    International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Symposium, Montreal, QC, October 29, 2010.  Juried poster presentation.
  • Dress to Impress: Brilliant Ikat Use in Contemporary Fashion
    Textile Museum Symposium "Tying the Rainbow: Re-examining Central Asian Ikats", Washington, DC, October 16, 2010.  Invited speaker.
  • Discovering and Belonging to Place:  The Expatriate Curator
    Alberta Museums Association Annual Conference, Edmonton, AB, September 25, 2010.  Juried oral presentation.   
      

Teaching

  • Selected by students and included in Who's Who in American Teachers of 1996.

Graduate students currently supervised and her research topic/area of interest 

Master's degree level within the Department of Human Ecology:

  • Advisor and head of graduate committee to Loretta Yau (September 2012 on).
  • Member of the graduate committee of Lesley Stafiniak (June 2011 on).  Topic of Ms. Stafiniak's research: "Investigating Inspirational Sources in the Textile Design Process."
  • Advisor and head of graduate committee to Therese Martinez-Yu (January 2010 on).  Topic of Ms. Martinez-Yu's research:  "Five Building Blocks:  A Study of Madeleine Vionnet's Construction Techniques Explained to the Novice Through the Exploration of Five Patterns by Betty Kirke." 

Doctoral level within the Department of English and Film Studies:

  • Member of Leanne Page's PhD committee (December 2011 on).  Topic of Ms. Page's research: "Bodies, Spaces, and Identities:  The Functions of Dress in the Victorial Sensation Novel."