About Me
Beautiful Scripts Deserve Amazing Costumes
You’ve created the characters, the story, and the world. Let me make them come to life.
Hi, I’m Ilse,
And I am a Historical Costume Designer. I spend every day at my sewing machine, between bolts of fabric, or looking at amazing dresses that are hundreds of years old. From the moment I created my very first historic dress, I have known: this is my passion. This is what I am supposed to do. And I want to share that with you. There is something so magical about recreating the past from just fabric and thread. That’s why I want to help you learn more about the history of fashion. Whether that is through reading the articles on my blog, by inspiring you with a new historical costume in my portfolio, or by making you your own custom costume. So you can indulge in that nostalgia with me.
My Background
When I was little, my mother used to sew. I would watch her, wear the clothes she made me, and I wanted to learn that too. I have always loved to create, whether that was with a pencil, a piece of fabric or anything else. When I was ten, my mom deemed me old enough to use a sewing
After studying Theater Science at the University of Amsterdam, I continued to study to become a costumier at HCH Modevakopleidingen, because I realized I wanted to combine my knowledge of theater with creating the visual aspect of the performance. However, my specific fascination lies with historic costumes. The way people used to dress. I love to know everything about the clothing of a specific time period and find a way to recreate that. However, there is no specific course combining the study of history and how people used to dress with the practical application of that knowledge, so I taught myself. I read lots of books on
