The best sources for comparanda will depend on the age of your garment. For pre-19th century garments try looking at paintings, books, and any surviving extant garments. For garments from the 19th century and after try looking at books, photographs, magazines, store catalogs and extant garments. If you have the name of a garment's donor you can also try looking for images of the donor in fashion magazines or society magazines like the New York Times or Vanity Fair.
Researching a designer from a specific period? Search by designer name in the library catalog not designer by decade. For example, if you were to search "Coco Chanel 30s" you would find zero books. However if you were to search for just "Coco Chanel" then look through the many books we have on her, you would find plenty of her designs from the 1930s. Because a designer's career can span decades, it's difficult to restrict a search to a specific designer AND a specific decade.
