DAAP Library Fashion Design Research Guide

The London College of Fashion College Archive is a collection of historical materials which chronicle the history of the College from its origins as two early needle trade schools up until the 1970's. This database contains images of black-and-white and sepia photographs from the Archive depicting a wide range of subjects taught at the schools over the years. These include, fashion, design, clothing technology, dressmaking, tailoring, millinery, furriery, upholstery, embroidery, beauty, hairdressing, wigmaking, physical education, science, drama, and general studies. Also included, are images of photographs which provide an insight into events and activities related to the colleges, for example, the education of women and men, student club activities, school visits, World War II evacuations, a Royal Visit by the Queen Mother, various ceremonial openings, and the architecture of the colleges and other buildings.

The shoe collection, of around 650 items, was built up by Cordwainers College as a teaching aid and it consists mainly of women's shoes with some men's and a few children's, the majority being British "fashion" footwear with some orthopaedic, some prize and exhibition work, lasts and shoemaker's tools and some ethnic footwear. A number of the items are unfinished, or cut to show technical details, and others show alterations or repairs.

The archive consists of eight volumes of editorial publicity cuttings, dating from 1939 to 1952, along with three volumes of advertising and point of sale product photographs, assorted loose photographs and other ephemera. It is the photographs that have been digitised and made available in this collection. Some of the photographs were accompanied by a Gala Publicity Department press release which has been included in the metadata, where available. The publicity cuttings show where the images were used and this information has also been included, along with the name of the photographer or photographic company, where identified. The photographs, together with the accompanying text, will be of interest to those studying the history of cosmetics, advertising photography, fashion promotion and women in the Second World War.

The London College of Fashion's Paper Patterns collection has accumulated over the years until it numbers some 800 dating from the 1920s to the present day. In an effort to preserve the collection and to make it more accessible, the collection has been catalogued and digitised. The ephemeral nature of the original materials means that collections are at risk and their volume and lack of bibliographic details means that they are difficult to organise. The information they can provide though about the history of fashion, the cascade of couture down to everyday wear and the culturally significant phenomena of home dressmaking in Europe and America makes them worthy of preservation and promotion.

The International Wool Secretariat, now The Woolmark Company, was established in 1937 to undertake research and the global promotion of wool. To that end, they built up a large library of promotional photographs and accompanying press releases which they generously donated to the London College of Fashion in the 1980's when they relocated and were short of space. The two thousand or so black and white photographs date from the 1940's through to the early 1980's and capture both the fashion of the time and the style of photography.The press releases, which in some cases are still attached to the photographs, give additional information about the garments, designers/manufacturers, the photographer and any points of interest reflecting the promotional style and language of the time.