Ashley Bellet is an assistant professor in the Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance, with a focus in Costume Design.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Memphis, TN where I attended an all-girls’ school—Southern girl all the way, cotillion, white gloves, etiquette classes. . . but my dad was from New Jersey, so I also had a healthy dose of Yankee pride. I still refuse any barbeque outside of Memphis.

What brought you to Purdue?

The opportunity to work with the colleagues I met here—I was looking forward to working with both undergraduates and graduate students, but I also really enjoyed all of the people I met here on campus. I enjoy the smaller town, the midwestern pride, and the people are generally just pretty great.

Why costume design?

I started out as a scenic designer—and I’d argue I still think like one—but I grew up around fashion so clothing is kind of a second language for me. I naturally gravitated to the costume shop. My mother was an accessories buyer so I have always used the details and nuance of clothing to tell stories. Clothing is so HUMAN. We all engage with it internally and externally whether we realize it or not. We can read so much about history, personality, our cultural zeitgeist. . . and there’s so much variation. It's not just that a character is wearing a leather jacket, it’s which jacket, how they’re wearing it, where they’re wearing it, and what they’re wearing it with. Every single thing we wear carries a message and a history, as well as some kind of intention.

What are some recent favorite projects? (What makes them your favorites?)

I designed costumes for a production of As You Like It this summer for the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and I loved working with a new team of people. We chose to set it in a Pre-Raphaelite style with a bit of comic flair—imagine late medieval gently combined with early Renaissance clothing, highly romanticized. I haven’t designed a medieval show before so that was REALLY fun—especially figuring out how to build a houppelande.

A few years ago I worked as a costume crafts artisan for The Santa Fe Opera, which I adored. As a crafts artisan you’re doing so much ‘figuring out how’ that it’s a bit like walking a line between design and construction. I was also surrounded by so many wildly talented artists from whom I learned A LOT—every day I filled my brain with possibilities. It inspired me as a collaborator and as a designer, just imagining the kinds of things I could do in the future.

Can you describe a dream project?

That’s tough! I’m so used to working on the project that comes my way. But I would love to design for a big shop full of really talented, detail-oriented artists, mainly because when I design I am always SO impressed by how the costume shop team can make things even better than I imagined they could be. It would probably be an opera and a little bit on the bizarre side, since I love to imagine new crazy worlds and work against traditional clothing shapes.

Can you describe one thing you have learned about Purdue since starting here that you really love?

Honestly, I always go back to the people. The people are the reason I come to work, the reason I enjoy meetings, the reason I hop over to get coffee. . . I love running into colleagues in the hallways. I enjoy a community of artists, and I think Pao Hall is pretty great because of that.