Rachel E. Pollock
Lecturer, Costume Production; Costume Crafts Artisan
CDA #246
Rachel E. Pollock has worked as a professional costume craftsperson for theatre, opera, ballet, television, and film since 1994. After freelancing in Knoxville (TN), Chicago, and Boston, she accepted a staff position as resident Lead Crafts Artisan and Dyer for the internationally-acclaimed American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University in Cambridge, where she served for four award-winning seasons. She subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to work in film and television costuming, as well as a stint on the crafts team of the LA Opera, before coming to Chapel Hill. She has served as a crafts artisan, dyer, and milliner for such designers as Catherine Zuber, Ann Hould-Ward, Ilona Somogyi, David Zinn, Constance Hoffman, and Julie Taymor. She has also worked as a dyer and first hand at the Broadway production house Parsons-Meares, Ltd. on shows such as Lion King, Radio City Music Hall’s Rockettes, Shrek: The Musical, and Disney’s Aladdin.
Ms. Pollock is the author of Sticks In Petticoats, the only extant text on parasol history and construction for the stage, as well as various articles for trade publications such as theCostume Research Journal. She is co-author with Gregory Morris and Triffin Morris of the book, A History of the Costume Making Business: Creators of Character (September 2021). She maintains the seminal costume crafts artisanship blog, La Bricoleuse and the corresponding YouTube channel. At UNC, she conducts a series of graduate seminars on costume craftwork—millinery, dyeing and distressing, masks, armor, and related topics.