Remembering Sally Norton

By Kathe Gust.

The word “vivacious” suited Sally Norton to a tee. Sally received her MA at UC Berkeley and made her living as a technical writer and editor.  But one of her passions was costuming. A favorite expression of hers was “I have an idea”.  Then she would proceed to tell you about the most amazing things she had thought of to do and rope you into helping her do them.

Sally was an early member of GBACG and continued as the Guild’s Historian and Archivist until the time of her passing, although the Archivist role was much reduced in 2013 when she assisted in getting most of the Guild’s documents scanned for online preservation. Even after the scans were completed, she was still always available if anyone had questions about Guild history.

Back when GBACG was part of the International Costumer’s Guild, Sally was an editor of, and contributor to, “Costumer’s Quarterly Magazine” https://costume.org/wp/the-international-costumer-newsletter-2022/costumers-quarterly-magazine/ 

Sally served on the GBACG board for many years in various roles. She was “Finery” newsletter editor for the years 2000-2003 and Costume Salon Coordinator in 2000.  Once the Guild went online, Sally was the Website Administrator from 2000-2005. She also served as Community Liaison from 2006-2008 and Member at Large in 2009.

In addition to serving GBACG, Sally was noted for providing mentorship to new costumers and offered suggestions and support to all her costuming acquaintances. She was a valued judge at competitions and she could be relied upon to “herd the cats” for any local conventions that wanted to put on a costume exhibition.

She also ran the fashion show at the annual GBACG in-person Open House for years. Her knowledge of who owned what costumes, and in what size, was both uncanny and invaluable.

Sally was an avid photographer and it is thanks to her that we have photos of many of the Guild events. She was exceptionally talented at capturing her subjects in the best light and great poses. Unfortunately, her delight at being behind the camera means that photos of Sally herself are few and hard to find.

Sally was mainly interested in historical costuming, particularly Victorian and Art Deco. She also collected Hollywood film costumes, created custom jewelry in both historic and steampunk styles, and was also a fan of mid-twentieth century Tiki culture.

She was deeply respected by the historical costuming community, her friends and many other organizations.