O “Método Elite” de Adelia Parron Alvarez: o ensino de corte e costura na Academia Nossa Senhora Aparecida (Curitiba-PR)

Abstract

In this research I aim to discuss some aspects related to the systematization strategies of the “Elite Cut and Sewing Method” created by Adelia Parron Alvarez for Academia Nossa Senhora Aparecida (ANSA). The Elite Method is the result of Adelia’s studies and practice as a seamstress and teacher. It was created in the 1960s to support the teaching of cutting and sewing women’s, men’s and children’s clothing at ANSA, which since the 1970s has been based in Curitiba, Paraná. Throughout the school’s history, seven editions of the Elite Method were published, the most recent of which was in 2014. The discussion on the method’s systematization considers the relationship between women and the practice of sewing, both as a daily task and as an opportunity for female professionalization. Therefore, an interview with the founder of the school from the perspective of oral history, Adelia’s study notebook, the second, fourth, fifth and seventh editions of the Elite Method’s cutting and sewing teaching books, as well as as digitized photographs from the ANSA collection constitute the research corpus. Understanding that the Elite Method proposed and organized a set of procedures related to the modeling of the pieces, I argue that it made possible a greater specialization in the elaboration of the clothes. This occurred through lessons that sequentially increase the degree of difficulty, by defining key pieces to teach how to make the model, in addition to sewing instructions, making it possible to combine lessons to create a broader set of pieces. The founder of ANSA also created the Elite squares to facilitate the tracing of curves and three charts with mathematical simplifications used for making necklines, armholes and crotchs. With this, ANSA has been developing its way of professionalizing women over the last 60 years.