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‘Please dispose of properly’: the context and continuance of fashion ephemera at the International Library of Fashion Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2025

Suzanna Hall
Suzanna Hall*
Affiliation:
Subject Librarian, Arts University Bournemouth Fern Barrow, Wallisdown Poole Dorset UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Fashion ephemera, encompassing items such as lookbooks, invitations, show notes, and promotional materials, presents numerous challenges for cultural institutions seeking to collect and preserve this material. Although many museums have examples of this material in their archives, International Library of Fashion Research (ILFR), in Oslo, Norway, is the first public library to centre its collections around fashion ephemera. Positioned as a fashion library, ILFR therefore offers a unique approach, which foregrounds the materiality and tangibility of the objects in their collection, beyond their initial function as supplementary documentation of fashion industry events and outputs. This article examines the complexities of integrating fashion ephemera into library collections, the significance of the library in mediating access to this type of material, and the critical role ephemera can play in fashion research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 2025 , pp. 45 - 51
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of ARLIS

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References

1. Ronald Barthes and Matthew Ward, The Fashion System (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).

2. Elizabeth Lawes and Vicky Webb, ‘Ephemera in the Art Library’, Art Libraries Journal 28, no. 2 (January 2003): 35–39, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307472200013109.

3. Jacqueline Cooke, ‘Heterotopia: Art Ephemera, Libraries, and Alternative Space’, Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 25, no. 2 (2006): 34–39, https://doi.org/10.1086/adx.25.2.27949438.

4. Lorenzo Salamone, ‘After Balenciaga, What Is the Future of Show Notes?’, Nss Magazine, 2022, https://www.nssmag.com/en/article/31051.

5. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

6. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

7. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

8. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

9. Cooke, ‘Heterotopia’.

10. Marco Pecorari, Fashion Remains: Rethinking Fashion Ephemera in the Archive (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021).

11. Ilaria Trame, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

12. Ilaria Trame, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

13. Judith Clark, ‘A Note: Getting the Invitation’, Fashion Theory 5, no. 3 (August 2001): 343–53, https://doi.org/10.2752/136270401778960856.

14. Ilaria Trame, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

15. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

16. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

17. Ilaria Trame, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.

18. Jacques Derrida and Eric Prenowitz, ‘Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression’, Diacritics 25, no. 2 (1995): 9–63, https://doi.org/10.2307/465144.

19. Elise By Olsen, interview by Suzanna Hall, 20 March 2024.