VALERIE MARCUS RAMSHUR
COSTUME DESIGN

This year is not starting with resolution. It is starting with fire. I did not begin this year gently. I began it angry. Not the tidy, articulate kind of anger that fits neatly into conversation, but the layered kind.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mason Gross School of the Arts  at Rutgers University, Threaded Paths  is collaborating with the MGSA/Rutgers Theatre Department  to develop a collective textile installation that celebrates the journeys, memories, and creative lives shaped there. Threaded Paths premiered in Fall 2025 as an international textile art exhibition during New York Textile Month at the 3rd Ethos Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibition showcased the work of 80

I first envisioned Threaded Paths: Global Stories In the late winter months of 2025, while recovering from multiple surgeries, During...

I’ve always been enamored with thread. As a metaphor. As an object. As a gesture of connection. This week, as I pulled apart fabric swatches by hand, I discovered the quiet complexity hiding in their fibers—unexpected color pairings, subtle shifts, layered histories. What began as a meditation became research. These deconstructed threads, tangled and shimmering on my desk, remind me that everything—textiles, stories, people—is stronger when woven together

Vestments of the Invisible: A Triptych. Wound (Red), Witness (White), and Warrior (Black). These reliquaries of lived experience. provide protection through presence, transformation, and remembrance.

What if memory could be worn? What if a geographical place could be stitched into form?15th-century heraldic tabards become the canvas for contemporary storytelling. Blending costume history, site-specific photography, and layered textile design.

“Librarians aren’t just resources, they’re co-conspirators in creative thinking, supporting both precision and productive wandering.”  ...

Before I ever stitched or wove, I began with color.  As the year winds down, I am continuing to share some of the many projects and paths...

Abstract figures crafted from colorful paint chips evoke and transformation in the "Paper Army Series." Paper can be fragile — but it can...

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE: Threaded Paths: An International Textile Initiative- 🧵 Call for Submissions: — no experience necessary. I’d...

Woven Narratives: Paper, Memory, and the Spaces Between This post discusses incorporating narrative into Aerial Rorschach through paper...

Some views require distance to make sense. Aerial Shot over Zurich, Switzerland As a child, I was captivated by the window seat of an...

Collage has always been a starting point for me. For decades, it has offered a way to tell small narratives, build mood boards, or work...

A year of wandering, making, and mapping — a year stitched from cloth, color, memory, and place.

This week on the blog: a birthday reflection on creativity and rest. Still making, still dreaming, still finding beauty in the becoming.

Esther Perbandt | Fall 2016 Ready-to-Wear Collection Couture and contemporary designers often return to the tabard —a sleeveless,...

The Four Basic Garments: A Foundation for Dress Theory In dress theory (sometimes called fashion theory—a title I don’t particularly...

As you know, I run a costume design program at a major American university. Within our costume studios and workshops, and a long-standing...

Photo Mosaic of Burano Island located in the Venetian Lagoon, Veneto Region, Italy I am captivated by how images tell stories—not just...

There’s a particular kind of disorientation that comes with returning after time away—whether from a physical place, a creative project,...