Skip to Main Content

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.

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