School of Fashion Senior Lecturer, Professor Trista L. Grieder has had the unique opportunity to design and produce a garment, the Jade Gown, inspired by Diana Dempsey’s novel, “The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft.” Diana Dempsey wanted to create a stand-out visual element to promote the novel. She said, "The Jade Gown screamed to be made: it’s the first gown for an evening that Eliza has ever worn and fuels her ambition to step up in life."
The Jade Gown is an important symbol in the novel, “To Eliza Haycraft, a real 19th-century woman born into poverty who never learned to read or write, the gown represented her first taste of affluence and freedom - the power to live life as she chose,” said Dempsey. Professor Greider was able to take the novel’s description and symbolism to create a period-accurate gown that is “a masterpiece of workmanship.”
In November 2022, Diana Dempsey reached out to Dr. Catherine Leslie, a professor at the School of Fashion, about designing the Jade Gown from her novel. Dr. Leslie recommended Professor Trista Grieder as she has extensive costume design experience.
Professor Grieder began the project by doing extensive research at the Kent State University Museum, pulling archived pieces from the 1840s. Based on her research, Professor Grieder created over 28 sketches. She then selected six of these sketches and presented them to Diana Dempsey. Professor Grieder created a final drawing of the selected sketch and began the process of creating the gown. During this process, Diana Dempsey came to visit the Kent campus and met with Dr. Leslie and Professor Trista L. Grieder to choose fabrics and shoes. Dempsey also attended Dr. Leslie's history of costume class while on campus.
As the project progressed, Professor Grieder completed an online measuring session with the model, Amanda Martinez Robiolio, and in December, 2022 started to mock up the dress. In March, 2023, she traveled to New York City and used the Kent State University NYC Studio for the first gown fitting. Once finished, the gown was transported to St. Louis, Missouri for the early July book release and a segment on Fox 2 News in St. Louis. Diana Dempsey was ecstatic with the results and said, “Our collaboration has been, to use a word appropriate to fashion, seamless.”
When asked why she reached out to Kent State University’s School of Fashion, Diana Dempsey said, “For some time now, I have been fortunate to enjoy a connection to the School of Fashion at Kent State University. My maternal ancestors immigrated to Cleveland from Poland, so I have a lifelong connection to Ohio. Years ago, the sister-in-law of my eldest niece studied at the School of Fashion. I had decided that I wanted a period garment drawn from my historical novel, The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft, to be made for book events, and remembered that Kate Hertelendy had regaled me with stories of the fascinating classes she’d taken on the history of fashion. Can you put me in touch with any of your instructors? I asked Kate, and she led me to Trista Grieder.” Diana is planning to do several more book signing events as well as come back to Kent State for an event on October 12 and 13.
At the School of Fashion, the faculty possess incredible skills. Projects similar to this are amazing opportunities to showcase the professional experience the faculty can share with students, as well as the countless resources available on campus.
About “The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft”
The year is 1844. On a May midnight, Eliza Haycraft flings herself into a canoe to escape a husband who beats her and a life that does the same. She is penniless and illiterate. With only herself to rely on, Eliza becomes a prostitute and madam, then a property owner and puller of strings.
Inspired by a true story, set in a tumultuous era too like our own, “The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft” is historical fiction with richly drawn characters, a shattering love story, and an extraordinary heroine you will remember long after the last page is turned...
About Professor Trista Grieder
Focused on technology- and ancestry-based design Professor Trista L. Grieder is an associate lecturer in the Fashion School and has taught merchandising and design classes for over nine years at Kent State University. She has worked as an internship coordinator at Hendrix College in Arkansas and taught at UNC Greensboro. Her industry experience includes Wrangler, Dillard’s, Mountain High Hosiery, Augusta Sportswear and other small companies. She focuses her teaching on Intro to Technology, Fashion Technology Applications, Product Development, and Contemporary Designers. Her publications include "Collaborative Production for Sustainability and Fashionability" and "Collaborative Production in a Real Life Scenario."
Professor Grieder designs pieces that draw from her background as a costume designer and her own personal heritage. For example, her Charlotte’s Treasures line utilized her 99-year-old grandmother’s personal hand-embroidered handkerchiefs and doilies.
Professor Trista L. Grieder has a B.A. in costume design from Kent State University and an M.S. in higher education-online learning from Kaplan University in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently working on her M.F.A. in costume technology here at Kent State. She has shown her work in Cleveland Fashion Week, Great Lakes Fashion Week, Aultman Charity Fashion Show, RAGS Wearable Art Show and Bridal Week in Canton.