Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:17:49.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Researching fashion in New York libraries and beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Clare Hills-Nova
Clare Hills-Nova*
Affiliation:
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1 East 78th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

By the 1990s, fashion studies’ relegation to the marginalia of art historical discourse had greatly diminished. During the same period, US fashion itself emerged from European domination, with the action centring on New York City. Conveniently, New York’s art, design and fashion libraries, archives and special collections were already the most wide-ranging anywhere and, propelled by multi-disciplinary-, multi-media-driven interests, they have continued to expand their collections in all areas of fashion research and design, as well as in fashion’s innumerable contiguous fields. While discussing the multiple research resources available to New York-based historians of dress, fashion designers and clothing industry affiliates, this article examines issues of choice and magical serendipity in the context of an at-times overwhelming plethora of information.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , 2004 , pp. 22 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. D’Harnoncourt, Anne. ‘Foreword,’ in Shocking! The art and fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli, by Dilys E, .Blum. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003, p.7. The installation in question was titled Sixteen miles of string, but in fact Duchamp used only one mile of it.Google Scholar
2. Smith, Gaye. ‘Inspiration and information: sources for the fashion designer and historian.’ Art libraries journal vol. 14 no. 4 1989, p.11–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. Although the terms ‘clothing’, ‘costume’, ‘dress’ and ‘fashion’ are not necessarily interchangeable, for the purposes of this paper this varying nomenclature will be regarded as an integral unit.Google Scholar
4. Landman, Neil H. Pearls: a natural history. New York: Abrams, 2001.Google Scholar
Rudoe, Judy. Cartier; 1900-1939. New York: Abrams, 1997. The exhibition also travelled to the British Museum, 1997-1998.Google Scholar
5. The Library is named after Robert, Goldwater (1907-1973), author of the ground-breaking Primitivism in modern painting. New York: Harper, 1938; he was also husband of Louise, Bourgeois. He was the first director of Nelson, Rockefeller’s Museum of Primitive Art, much of which, including its library and archives, was given to the Metropolitan Museum in 1969.Google Scholar
6. Perhaps the most notable was the Infra-apparel exhibition, which included the infamous Jean-Paul Gaultier corset he designed for Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour. Martin, Richard and Koda, Harold. Infra-apparel. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.Google Scholar
7. A similar trend has also been noted regarding the parallel field of tapestry studies. Weingart, Laura. ‘Exhibition review: tapestry exposed.’ Art bulletin vol. LXXXV no. 4 December 2003, p.784–786.Google Scholar
8. Bridgeman, Jane. ‘Stella Mary Newton: Obituary.’ Costume vol. 36 2002, p.199–206. Other recently-deceased history of dress/history of textiles pioneers include Janet Arnold (1932-1998), Donald King (1920-1998) and Doreen Yarwood (1918-1999).Google Scholar
9. Grimes, William. ‘Bill Blass gives $10 million to library.’ New York Times 13 January 1994, p.C13.Google Scholar
10. Schiro, Ann-Marie. ‘Fashion’s night to preen.’ New York Times 31 January 1993, section 9, p.9, column 1.Google Scholar
11. ‘Je suis le dernier couturier,’ says Yves Saint Laurent in the David Teboul film, YSL: 5 avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, which documents the YSL 2001 collection.Google Scholar
12. See, for example, the article by Ross, Alex and Bowen, Amanda, in which – already – they discussed the leavening of formalist art history by inter-disciplinary studies. ‘Breaking old boundaries: developing a bibliography course for the new art history,’ Art reference services quarterly vol. 12 1993, 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Taylor, Lou. The study of dress history. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002, p.l.Google Scholar
She cites Samuel, Raphael, Theatres of memory. vol. 1: Past and present in contemporary culture (London & New York: Verso, 1994), p.3.Google Scholar
14. Johnson, Kim D.P. et al., eds. Fashion foundations: early writings on fashion and dress. Oxford and New York: Berg, 2003.Google Scholar
15. Rorschach, Kimberly. ‘Foreword,’ in A well-fashioned image: clothing and costume in European art, 1500-1850, ed. by Rodini, Elizabeth and Weaver, Elissa B.. Chicago: David and Alfred Smart Museum, University of Chicago, 2002, p.vii.Google Scholar
16. Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. Women’s work: the first 20,000 years: women, cloth and society in early times. New York: Norton, 1994.Google Scholar
17. Fausch, Deborah et al., eds. Architecture: in fashion. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994.Google Scholar
18. Palmer, Alexandra. Couture and commerce: the transatlantic fashion trade in the 1950s. Vancouver: UCB Press, 2001.Google Scholar
19. Moda alla corte dei Medici: gli abiti restaurati di Eleonara di Toledo e don Garda. Firenze: Centro Di, 1993.Google Scholar
20. Roche, Daniel. La culture des apparences. Paris: Fayard, 1989.Google Scholar
English translation, The culture of clothing: dress and fashion in the Ancien régime. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
21. For a discussion of ‘e-apparel’, ‘intelligent’ – or ‘second-skin’ – clothing, using ‘extreme textiles’, see Handley, Susannah, ‘La mode: au future proche.’ Beaux-arts magazine vol. 209 October 2001, p.106–111. The 2003 National Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt showed the work of six designers working in this area. Lupton, Ellen et al. Inside design now. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.Google Scholar
22. Steele, Valerie. Fetish: fashion, sex, and power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
23. Killerby, Catherine Kovesi. Sumptuary law in Italy, 1200-1500. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24. Harvey, J.R. Men in black. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Incidentally, the book came out before the film.Google Scholar
25. Perrot, Phillippe. Le travail des apparences: ou, le transformation du corps feminine, XVIII-XIX siècle. Paris: Seuil, 1984. 2nd ed.,Google Scholar
Le corps feminine: XVIIIe-XIXe siècle: le travail des apparences. Paris: Seuil, 1991.Google Scholar
26. Arthur, Linda B., ed., Religion, dress and the body. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27. See for example, the weekly Style section of the Sunday New York Times, which invariably includes a photographic panoply of (and commentary on) New Yorkers in their ever-innovative street attire.Google Scholar
28. Hill, Michael et al, ‘Foreword, ‘ in Information sources in art, art history and design, ed. Ford, Simon. München: Saur, 2001, p.vii–viii.Google Scholar
29. Barry, Schwartz discussing his The paradox of choice: why more is less. New York: Ecco, 2004. The News Hour (National Public Radio), Interview, by Paul, Solman, 26 December 2003. Text retrieved 1st March 2004 at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/july-dec03/paradox_12-26.html Google Scholar
30. Treasures of FIT’s Special Collections. Forthcoming exhibition, FIT, summer 2004.Google Scholar
31. Smith, op. cit., p. 13.Google Scholar