Meet PASTFASHION's Randy Bigham
Randy Bryan Bigham is a Texas-based writer specializing in the history of early 20th century fashion, theater and film. He has contributed articles, images and research to Doyle New York, Women's Wear Daily, Kerry Taylor Auctions, the Sundance Channel, the Sunday Times Magazine, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Museum of London, The Lady, The Daily Telegraph, The Globe & Mail and CBC Radio.
Randy is the author of Lucile - Her Life by Design, the first full-scale biography of the pioneering Edwardian couturier Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon. With Professor Leslie Midkiff de Bauche, he provided the entry on Lucile for Columbia University's "Women Film Pioneers Project," and supplied visuals for a documentary segment on Lucile for the 2016 season of BBC-TV's "The Great British Sewng Bee." His book and supplementary research are cited in a number of titles, including the following: Lucile Ltd by Valerie Mendes, The Mechanical Smile by Caroline Evans, Hollywood Before Glamour by Michelle Finamore, London Society Fashion by Jenny Lister, The Dolly Sisters: Icons of the Jazz Age by Gary Chapman, Cinema by Design by Lucy Fischer, One Enchanted Evening by Charlotte Smith, The It Girls by Karen Harper and The Titanic Expeditions by Eugene Nesmeyanov.
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Randy is also author of Finding Dorothy, a biography of silent film star and Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson, and of "Life's Decor," the biography of interior design expert, explorer and suffragist Helene Churchill Candee that was included in the 2008 re-release of Candee's 1924 travelogue Angkor the Magnificent.
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He served as adviser to guest curator Hugh Brewster for the 2016 Canadian exhibition Lucile - Fashion. Titanic. Scandal at the Guelph Civic Museum. Items from Bigham's collection were featured in it as well as in the 2016 Cornell University exhibition The Biggest Little Fashion City, curated by Professor Denise Green, which won the Richard Martin Exhibition Award from the Costume Society of America.
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Randy has provided commentary for a series of fashion history paper doll books published by Paper Studio Press. The first, Theda Bara: Vamp of the Silent Screen, was released in October 2017. Another title, Titanic Ladies, will go to print in April 2018 and the third book, Lucile, is set to go to press later in 2018.
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From April to November 2018 pieces from Randy's Lucile garment collection and archive will be on exhibit at the Titanic Museums in Branson, MO and Pigeon Forge, TN as part of a special promotional event called "The Amazing Women on the Titanic."
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