This themed issue about fashion is not at all what I envisioned and it is the better for it. It presents fashion within a library and research context, beyond individual collections and into the realms of how collections are deployed by a range of users. It has been a crash course in fashion studies and the articles have broadened my perspective and understanding of fashion (and the variety that entails) and of how libraries and archives are facilitating usage of their resources.

It is a credit to all the contributors how they interpreted the initial call for papers and responded with such diverse approaches and enthusiasm. There is no ‘viewpoint’ for this issue, as there were so many submissions and they speak for themselves. Indeed, there is a second fashion-themed issue planned for later in this volume, such was the energetic response to the call for papers. For those who work with fashion collections on a regular basis, I hope you find potential untapped resources within the two issues; and for those, like myself, who do not work with such collections or users, I hope your curiosity has been piqued.

On a less uplifting note, I apologise that Crónán Ó Doibhlin's article in volume 41, issue 4 contained residual copy-editing notes in the final version. I try to check carefully, but invariably errors sometimes do get through, and I apologize to him that my unprofessional negligence has marred an outstanding article. The online article has been corrected.