Suzi has been sewing since she was 8 years old when she sneaked her grandmother’s 1940 Singer sewing machine to design and make Barbie clothes. By age 10, she was making all her own clothing which incorporated embroidery, handmade lace, and special embellishments.
Performing at an elite level in high school and community theatre, Suzi designed and built costumes and sets for many performers. As a Miss America pageant regional winner, she perfected stage, lighting, and costume techniques for “Leading Lady” local performances.
Suzi earned a degree in Theatre Design/Technology, “Costume Emphasis” from the University of Illinois (UIUC), where she was honored to be selected by Japanese Masters to build key costumes for Kabuki, plus German designers sewing the leading characters. At this time she also learned how many hours it takes to sew the ruffles on an 1893 “9 Yard Petticoat”.
Determining costume design did not appear to be a lucrative profession, Suzi jumped to her other college degrees of Landscape Architecture and Coaching for the next 30 years for income. She kept her sewing and design skills strong by forcing her children to wear crazy costumes and leading “Odyssey of the Mind” and Cub Scouts in acting, writing, and designing projects. She designed hundreds of shirts graphics for organizations through the years, as well as bridal & formal wear.
A summer job working with anthropologists as a docent at an 1885 living history farm in the Chicago area in 2001 opened Suzi’s eyes to the world of historical theatrical costume interpretation. There she learned how to research and apply the theatrical techniques she knew, to historic pattern making, materials, and methods. Living in full Victorian garb in 100 degree Illinois humidity, and finding it to be more comfortable than anything she’d ever worn, became a turning point, and the beginning of an idea to share the EXPERIENCE of historical costuming with others.
It was after a medical set back due to a tick bite in 2004 where she contracted chronic/persistent Lyme disease, plus a move to beautiful northwestern Wyoming with her husband’s retirement, that brought Suzi to Silhouettes.
Working several years at the Cody Chamber Visitor Center, she helped French and English speaking tourists, as well as associates with the many re-enactors and performers of the area. These connections with “The Cody Gunfighters” and museum curators as well as historical organizations led to development of the Buffalo Gals historic interpreters performance group, as well as good local customers who value historical accuracy.
Embarrassed one day that she had “only modern things to wear” when a coworker at the Visitor Center came to work during the classy Cody “Buffalo Bill Art show” in gorgeous 1900’s cowboy ensemble, and also impressed with a friend’s fur and leather work displayed in that show, Suzi started thinking “I could do that”. The real “aha” moment came though, when a storyteller friend needed someone to sew an authentic costume. That one complete and accurate ensemble “from the bum up” led to the inspiration for many others to follow, some of which are shown on this website.
Suzi has had many concurrent careers including professional photography, graphic & web design, printing, landscape design/build, and coaching/teaching. She particularly enjoys the photographic staging of her costume projects, but all of her skills benefit the Silhouettes process in some way. Period sketches on print and web are her original drawings, and she does all her own web design, formatting, writing, and blogging.
In 2020, when COVID basically shut down the business due to closures of historic sites and events across the US, Suzi made the hard decision to close the “for profit” end of the business to focus on The Gals and the joy of sewing as community service. She works as a postal carrier to finance the operation, while taking on a few select customers and special projects, and continues to follow her passion and improve expertise as well as to expand the years into the 1920’s. She also now builds costume ensembles for women AND men educational performers plus children which are always designed, built, and fitted using period correct materials and methods so they are “historically authentic from the bum up”.
Designer & contractor for the lovely Silhouettes Shoppe located next to the beautiful babbling Bennett Creek in historic Clark, Wyoming, Suzi has built not only a workshop, but a “vacation destination”. She has gathered all her experiences into one basket, to the benefit of those wanting a full historic experience working with a personal tailor.
