Enthralled by the exploration of history, culture and aesthetics, Amelia has loved the adventure of stories since a young age. She is therefore passionate about how clothing can reveal stories, both in stage production and historical settings.
Amelia started out as a Costume Designer in Los Angeles after graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Design from the University of Southern California. She worked on various film and theatre projects in Los Angeles before working for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC.
After interning and volunteering at the Smithsonian Institution, Amelia was captivated by the stories found through observing and researching historical garments. She then became eager to learn more about, not only fashion and performing arts history, but also ways those stories can be preserved and told to broader audiences.
Amelia completed her Masters degree in Library and Information Studies at University College London, with the long term goal of being a Fashion or Performing Arts Librarian. Her dissertation, ‘Suited and Sorted:
Costume Houses as a Reflection of Information Organisations’ examined how costume rental houses used in film and theatre can implement cataloguing, classification, and database principles used by libraries and archives. The dissertation is now part of the research collection at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Amelia Brookins 