Research Guides: How to Use the Fashion Resource Center: Fashion Websites + Databases + Museum Collections

Where to Find Fashion Websites + Databases + Museum Collections

Fashion Journals

Business of Fashion (BoF)
Available only to individual subscribers (Flaxman Library does not subscribe). Students can sign up for a free membership; others for a free basic account click here and scroll to bottom of page.

Ebony Magazine Archive (Google Books) This link opens in a new window
Many issues digitized cover-to-cover from 1959 to 2008.
Esquire Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Collections of issues freely available via the Internet Archive from 1933 to 2017.
Harper's Bazaar This link opens in a new window
The backfiles of the US and UK editions of Harper's Bazaar magazine, a fashion, arts, and culture authority from 1867 to the present. Scanned in full color, it features detailed indexing and searchable text.
Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
Browseable and searchable content from the American fashion magazine Vogue, including covers. 1892 to the present.
Women's Wear Daily (WWD) Archive This link opens in a new window
Definitive fashion and retail publication providing primary source material for fashion, business, history and the development of the fashion industry over the twentieth & twenty-first centuries. 1910 to the present.

Library Databases + Streaming Video

A&AePortal This link opens in a new window
Yale University Press's authoritative eBook resource that features important works of scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design. Includes the Art Institute of Chicago's eBooks.
Art Design & Architecture Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes the full-text of many contemporary art magazines (e.g., Artforum International) plus scholarly journals in the visual and performing arts, literature and the humanities.
Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new window
Integrated text and image content on world dress and fashion throughout history. Includes the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, ebooks, an image bank, and more.
Bloomsbury Fashion Video Archive This link opens in a new window
Nearly 3,000 fashion videos from the YOOX-NET-A-PORTER Runway Archive Collections, this documents 1979 to 2003. No audio provided.
Fashion Channel This link opens in a new window
Includes Milan, Paris, New York and London premier fashion events & runway video.
Fashion by Look This link opens in a new window
Runway videos and designer fashion shows for the past decades. Includes interviews with designers.
Fashion Studies Online: The Videofashion Library This link opens in a new window
1,200 hours of vivid video capturing the many faces of fashion—including nearly 40 years of worldwide fashion shows, designer profiles, and documentary segments.
Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
Browseable and searchable content from the American fashion magazine Vogue, including covers. 1892 to the present.
Women's Wear Daily (WWD) Archive This link opens in a new window
Definitive fashion and retail publication providing primary source material for fashion, business, history and the development of the fashion industry over the twentieth & twenty-first centuries. 1910 to the present.

All Available Fashion Databases @ Flaxman

Museum Collections

Bata Shoe Museum
Over 10,000 items spanning 4,500 years. Includes a collection of 20th-century celebrity shoes.
Costume Museum of Canada
A collection of 35,000 artifacts spanning 400 years. Emphasizes historic Canadian costume, but also contains pieces from modern designers such as Chanel, Schiaparelli, Scassi and Paco Rabanne.
Drexel University Philadelphia, Historic Costume Collection
Selections of garments from the collection are available in this google collection.
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, De Gracieuse magazine
Browse the fashion magazine De Gracieuse from 1862 - 1936.
La Chapellerie Atelier-Musée du Chapeau, Lyon France
Chazelles sur Lyon was once the center of production for de luxe hair felt hats. Since 1976 only one factory has remained in production. The Hat Making Museum collections include all types of hats for women and men from 1850 to contemporary times, including some young designers. Archives are open to students and professionals.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Costume Institute
The Costume Institute's collection of more than 35,000 costumes and accessories represents five continents and seven centuries of fashionable dress, regional costumes, and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.
Museum Costume, Bath (U.K.)
Focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day. The Museum was the creation of Doris Langley Moore, a designer, collector and historian, who gave her famous private collection of costume to the city in 1963. It now has over 30,000 objects in its collection.
Museum of Handbags & Purses = Tassenmuseum Hendrikje (Amsterdam)
The lady's handbag in western culture, from late Middle Ages to the present day. More than 2,000 purses and accesories. The museum also presents exhibitions of contemporary purse designers' work.
Smithsonian Women's Dress Collection
The Costume Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Behring Center, contains over 30,000 garments and accessories representing the changing appearance of Americans from the 17th century to the present. The collection illustrates many of the social, cultural, technological and economic influences affecting dress made or worn in America.
Stockport Hat Works Museum
Another town with historic links to the hatting industry. Demonstrations, displays, educational activities. Resident milliner and textile designer. Displays cover the hat from the early 1800's to catwalk fashions of the 21st century.
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum's Fashion collection spans five centuries and features items from around the world. Key items in the collection include rare 17th century gowns, 18th century ‘mantua’ dresses, 1930s eveningwear, 1960s daywear and post-war couture.