Subject of the Month: 2023

Connect with the Libraries
Have an idea for Subject of the Month?

December's Subject of the Month

History of Fashion



Selector: Maria Nuccilli

"Fashion is part of the daily air, and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes." - Diana Vreeland

Interested in fashion? Make sure to check out the Fashion Design & Merchandising research guide for more resources!


Featured Digital Collection

Digital Dress Collection

Wayne State University Libraries' Digital Dress Collection contains images of clothing worn in Michigan during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, offering insight into Michigan life and society. The Digital Dress Collection is comprised of four subcollections, each showcasing items held in the physical collections of the Detroit Historical Society, Wayne State University's Department of Art and Art History, The Henry Ford, and Meadow Brook Hall.

Balenciaga Satin Embroidered Gown with Large Cummerbund Sash, circa 1950
Black straw hat with wide brim and 3 feathers, circa 1926-1936
Cream colored hip length wrap with fringe, circa 1930-1959

Above: Items from Wayne State University Libraries Digital Dress Collection

Other Digital Collections

Victoria and Albert Museum Fashion Collection

Spanning five centuries, this collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of dress in the world. Subcollections of note include 60s Fashion, Shoes, Costume, Underwear, Hats, and Glasses.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Costume Collection

The MET's Costume Institute collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Black Fashion Museum Online Exhibition

Founded in 1979, the Black Fashion Museum collected and exhibited the creations of numerous designers of color, and is now part of The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. View the collaborative exhibit above, or browse on the NMAAHC website.

The Museum at FIT Fashion Collection

Fashion Institute of Technology's museum has a permanent collection of more than 50,000 garments and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present, a portion of which are viewable online.

The Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archives

The Kyoto Costume Institute maintains an archive of over 13,000 items, most which are only viewable onsite. Their digital archive features a portion of the collection, including pieces from Japanese Designers and the Pop Art Era.

New York Public Library Fashion Collections

NYPL's digitized holdings feature fashion illustrations from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

eBooks & Books in Print

Google Arts & Culture | We Wear Culture

With this project, the world of fashion joins more than a thousand institutions of art and history that share their collections on Google Arts & Culture, letting you explore even more of our culture in one place. 

More than 180 museums, fashion institutions, schools, archives and other organizations from the fashion hubs of New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, São Paulo and elsewhere came together to put three millennia of fashion at your fingertips. You can browse 30,000 fashion pieces: try searching for hats and sort them by color or shoes by time. In 450+ exhibits, you can find stories from the ancient Silk Road to the ferocious fashion of the British punk. Or meet icons and trendsetters like Coco ChanelCristóbal BalenciagaYves Saint Laurent or Vivienne Westwood.

Podcasts

FIT | Fashion History Timeline

Fashion Institute of Technology's Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history.

Browse by time period, explore the blog, read essays, and check out these additional resources:

Credit: Sarah Rice for The New York Times

“You either have the choice of kind of trying to compete with fast fashion, which is almost impossible or try to offer something that fast fashion definitely cannot, that the customer recognizes as different than what she’s getting,” said Tracy Reese at her studio in Detroit, Mich.

Fashion in Detroit

Videos

YouTube is home to many videos on the history of fashion. Explore some recommended channels below.

Vintage Fashion Guild

The Vintage Fashion Guild (VFG) is an international organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of vintage fashion. Founded in 2002 by a group of vintage sellers, it soon grew into a vintage-fashion knowledge base exceeding any other online resource. We then focused on collecting, organizing, and presenting that information-resulting in the first VFG website.

  • Label Resource: A very popular resource indispensable to the vintage seller and buyer alike
  • Fur Resource: A descriptive and visual aid to help identify fur, exotic skins, and plumage
  • Lingerie Guide: Terms and examples of vintage lingerie
  • Fashion Timeline: An historical look at fashion trends from the 1800s through the 1960s
  • Fabric Resource: Fabrics and fabric terms in an A-Z glossary, how to determine fiber, and ways to search for a “mystery” fabric
  • Hat Resource: A guide to vintage hat history and styles