Costume Design & Textile History: Home
costume design + textile history
Resources at VT
- Theater Arts Research Guide Research materials for theatre arts include resources for acting, directing, scenography, costume design and construction, technical design and production, theatre history, literature and playwriting, stage management, and arts administration.
- The Oris Glisson Historic Costume and Textile Collection @ VT The Oris Glisson Historic Costume and Textile Collection is housed within the Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management in Wallace Hall Room 123A.
Resources We Recommend
- Art & Architecture ePortalA powerful search tool from Yale University that integrates image and text searches in innovative and powerful ways.
- FIT's Fashion History Timeline"The Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history."
- FIT Digital Image LibraryA good place to find primary sources, the Fashion Institute of Technology's digital collections have many open-access resources available to everyone.
- JSTOR ImagesImage collections from universities and museums on a wide variety of subjects.
- Vogue MagazineAn excellent primary source, the library has a physical collection of Vogue magazine with issues dating back to 1915. These need to be requested from off-site storage and used in the library. We can help you with this.
Textile Collections
Large museums, like the ones linked below, have the resources to photograph and make large portions of their collections available online.
Other good places to look for textile collections are historical societies, local and regional museums, and historic house museums. These institutions often don't have the resources to extensively document their collections online. However, they will welcome your research inquiries.
Don't feel shy about reaching out to curators or registrars at smaller institutions about their collections. Staff will likely be excited you are interested and you may find unexpected hidden gems!
- Metropolitan Musem of ArtA large and well-documented collection of textiles and extant garments.
- The Kyoto Costume Institute's Digital Archive13,000 object costume collection, organized by decade from 1700-2010s.
- Victoria & Albert MuseumAn extensive collection of design and decorative arts with a global focus spanning 5000 years.
Helpful Links
- VT Libraries VT University Libraries' Homepage - search for resources, access library services, and learn about library events.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Can't find what you need? Use ILL to access digital and physical books from libraries around the world.
- Subject Research Guides An index of research guides for all subjects at Virginia Tech.
Sarah Stanley
Contact:
Art & Architecture Library
100A Cowgill Hall
sarahstanley@vt.edu
100A Cowgill Hall
sarahstanley@vt.edu
540-231-2559
Subjects: Architecture, art, and design