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Fashion and Clothing History

http://fitnyc.libguides.com/clothing

Welcome!

This guide offers suggestions of the most heavily used fashion history databases, sites, books and magazines as well as tips for how to search a fashion history topic. These topics are huge, so we've just provided examples to give you an idea of the many different directions your research can take you.

EMc/MS March 2020

Fashion History eBooks/eTextbooks

eTextbookMany of your course textbooks are now available online! If you don't see your textbook listed here, please Ask a Librarian!

Fashion & Clothing History: What's important?

Dressform

How do you decide what makes a good clothing history resource?

  • Are its images representative of a period style? Do they represent layers, colors, silhouette, and fabrics accurately? 
  • Does it offer period historical context for the fashionable mindset? What did the pieces mean to the people wearing them?
  • Does it list the historical words used to describe parts of the clothing? Does it show the ways dress was stylized in the period it was worn?
  • How have the clothes of a period been interpreted and reinterpreted in later years? Were they interpreted accurately, or redrawn differently?
  • Does the source refer to recent research? When was it last updated? Note that sometimes older books have better information.

Fashion History Digital Databases

Thousands of recent and historical articles, books and images.  Access it online with your FIT username and password.

Berg Fashion Library

Berg Fashion Library

contains fashion specific dictionaries and encyclopedias.  It's a great place to get definitions and overviews on a topic.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Gale Virtual Reference Library

contains fashion specific dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Artstor

Artstor

has thousands of images from museum collections around the world.  You can browse by Country of Origin, Museum, Medium and Time Period.

Vogue Archive

Vogue Archive

Every issue from 1892-Current, including articles, ads, editorial content 

FITDIL: FIT Digital Image Library

FITDIL: FIT Digital Image Library

digital repository database of approximately 64,000 digital images intended for both research and instructional use by FIT students and faculty. Includes our designer files.

Harper's Bazaar Archive

Harper's Bazaar Archive

Harper's Bazaar (US): 1867-present
Harper's Bazaar (UK): April 1930 - Dec 1969
Harpers and Queen (UK): Nov 1970 - Feb 2006
Harper's Bazaar (UK): Mar 2006 - Dec 2015

Fashion History Reference Works

Popular Fashion History Books

Fashion History & Theory Periodicals

Available either online or in print in the Periodicals Department, Library 4th floor.

See the full list at History of Dress & Fashion Theory Periodicals list.

Clothing Cultures

Clothing Cultures

scholarly
2014 (v1 n1); 2016 (v3 n1). 3x per year
online: October 2013 (v1 n1)-Current (Current FIT username and password required for access)
This journal discusses how clothes determine social interaction and behavior and their statement of one’s values or culture. It also covers textiles and their significance in the production and consumption of clothing.

Cora Ginsburg Catalogues

Cora Ginsburg Catalogues

online: 2001-2018
store catalog
Founded in 1971, the company specializes in museum quality antique costume of the 18th and 19th centuries and in European embroideries, silks, and printed textiles of the 17th - 20th centuries

Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society

Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society

scholarly
1967-Current. Semi-annual
online: 1965/66-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
The journal of the Costume Society of the United Kingdom. Book reviews and scholarly articles about the history of dress and costume design

Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty

Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty

scholarly
online: October 2010 (v1 n1)-Current
A journal dedicated to the examination of fashion and beauty systems as symbolic spaces of production and reproduction, representation and communication of artifacts, meanings, social practices, and renditions of cloth, clothing and appearance

Critical Studies in Men's Fashion

Critical Studies in Men's Fashion

scholarly
2014 (v1 n1); 2015 (v2 n2/3). 3x per year
online: October 2013 (v1 n1)-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
Discussion, analysis, and theoretical development of men’s appearance from multiple disciplines

Dress

Dress

trade publication
1975 (v1 n1)-Current. 2x per year
online: January 1975 (v1 n1)-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
The journal of the Costume Society of America. “Dedicated to the better understanding of the field of costume study in America”

Fashion, Style & Popular Culture

Fashion, Style & Popular Culture

scholarly
2014 (v1 n1). 3x per year
online: October 2013 (v1 n1)-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
A peer-reviewed journal specifically dedicated to the area of fashion scholarship and its interfacings with popular culture. 

Fashion Theory

Fashion Theory

scholarly
March 1997 (v1 n1)-Current. 5x per year
online: February 1997 (v1 n1)-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
Social and psychological aspects of fashion presented in scholarly articles

Film, Fashion & Consumption

Film, Fashion & Consumption

scholarly
online: January 2011 (v1 n1)-Current (Current FIT username and password required for access)
Film, Fashion & Consumption is a peer-reviewed journal designed to provide an arena for the discussion of research, methods and practice within and between the fields of film, fashion, design, history, art history and heritage. 

International Journal of Fashion Studies

International Journal of Fashion Studies

scholarly
2014 (v1 n1); 2015 (v2 n2). Semi-annual
online: April 2014 (v1 n1)-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
A scientific peer-reviewed journal that fosters the worldwide diffusion of Fashion Studies. Fashion Studies is an interdisciplinary field of research that has been producing an extensive repertoire of theories, analyses and enquiries

Studies in Costume & Performance

Studies in Costume & Performance

scholarly
online: April 2016 (v1 n1)-Current (Current FIT username and password required for access)
This title aims to encourage, generate and disseminate critical discourse on costume and the relationship between costume and performance. 

Textile History

Textile History

scholarly
December 1971 (v2 n1)-Current. Semi-annual
online: December 1968 (v1 n1)-Current
(Current FIT username and password required for access)
Scholarly articles on the history and development of the textile industry

Have a question or comment about these guides? Contact: libraryreference@fitnyc.edu