The Threads of a Legacy: Ashley Bellet ’98 Fashions a Career in Costume Design

For Ashley Bellet ’98, it started with a stitch. In seventh grade at St. Mary’s, she helped design her first costume. Those first stitches grew into a beautiful tapestry as she is now a professional costume designer and professor at Purdue University. 

During her years as a student, Ashley was always on stage. This love for performance, combined with an interest in fashion, set Ashley up for her successful career designing costumes for theaters all over the country. 

After St. Mary’s, Ashley got her bachelor’s degree in Theatre Design and English from the University of the South at Sewanee before earning her master's from the University of Memphis. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. 

Through a blend of colors and fabrics, Ashley produces unique garments reflecting her dedication to storytelling. 

“I love that I get to tell stories with what people wear, and how they wear it,” she said. “I love that it's so human and personal, and it tells us so much about a culture and a time.”

Ashley’s love of heritage and tradition reconnected her to St. Mary’s for a project, but this time she’s not helping out the Middle School play. Instead, she is documenting the history and traditions of St. Mary's graduation dresses. (Share your St. Mary’s graduation dress story here.) 

“The graduation dress is such a special thing. It is so incredible to be a part of something like that,” Ashley said. “It’s just a wonderful story that I want to tell.” 

This preservation of personal and communal history reflects the stories that each dress holds. Each girl has her own story at St. Mary’s that is woven into the fabric of the school. 

For Ashley, St. Mary’s prepared her to follow a career in costume design, but her story also reflects the confidence characteristic of a St. Mary’s girl. 
 
“I wouldn't be who I am without coming from St Mary’s,” she said. “We were taught to speak out and to have a voice and an opinion. I think that St Mary’s taught me how to be a leader, and I just felt so much more prepared to try whatever I needed and wanted to try.”

Ashley’s St. Mary’s story comes full circle this summer as she designs the costumes for Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” – one of the first plays she performed in at St Mary’s.

“‘As You Like It’ was the first Shakespeare play I was in, and it was this beautiful production. We were all dressed in white and had a local florist who donated daisies,” she said. “I'm designing it now for the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and it's just a full circle moment.”

Share Your Dress Story

 

Written by Wallis Rogin ’25