 Biographical Information |
| Since 1974, House of Garak founder Darlene Wigton has been immersed in the world of historical reenactments. What follows on this page are highlights of her accomplishments, skills, and affiliations. |  |
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Originally trained as a ballerina by the late legendary Harriet Hockner, Darlene Wigton has always been an artist. Her talent ranges from visual art, being an accomplished illustrator, calligrapher as well as a painter, to the performing arts where she has been a dancer , and dance teacher ( at her own school, the Winchester School of Ballet) and now to "LADY GARAK", the Tory wife and tailor of an 18th Century British Officer. While performing in the role of a Tory tailor, she fabricated excellent historically correct clothing. It was not long before her fellow reenactors were asking her to create their clothing too. Her garments where obviously superior to mass manufactured stock clothing some were wearing. She then made a career decision, to concentrate exclusively on tailoring. Soon her creations were being worn by several well known British and Colonial military units, and by serious individual reenactors. Darlene is not new to this highly specialized kind of tailoring. She has been doing this since 1974!! For the last 34 years she has accumulated a deep knowledge of the world of reenactment and living history, from American military, British military, and wealthy gentry view points. She is clearly expert in 18th Century garments for fabric choices, construction methods and coloring. Her passion for reproduction fashion and true accuracy in the fabrication of period clothing puts her among the top designers and tailors of this very specialized kind of tailoring. She has conducted workshops on colonial sewing and newspaper articles have been written about her. She has won the respect and admiration of her colleagues and clients who wear her creations with complete confidence. Darlene delights in creating the pomp and grandeur of military dress uniforms, and the opulent garments of the 18th Century gentry. She does not and will never produce a great number of garments because of the long hours of hand labor needed to attain her high standards of design and fabrication. Certainly no product created by the House of Garak will ever be mediocre.
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