thedecorouscat
Registered Guest
Hello everyone. I’m wondering what everyone’s favorite sites or sources are for doing research on vintage or finding old advertising? Where do you guys go when you come across a new designer to learn more about them?
Favorite research sources?
- Thread starter thedecorouscat
- Start date
The first place I would check is the VFG Label Resource to see if we have an entry on that designer. You can access it from our homepage.
https://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource
If I don't find something there, I will do a Google Search. Some of our members have subscriptions to newspaper archives and those often produce great results. I subscribe to the NYTImes - so sometimes I might look there for information.
https://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource
If I don't find something there, I will do a Google Search. Some of our members have subscriptions to newspaper archives and those often produce great results. I subscribe to the NYTImes - so sometimes I might look there for information.
Newspapers.com has a gazillion of old newspapers, so a great source for ads etc. - but you have to pay for a subscription, it's only free for a few days. I signed up for the free one just to look at some specific ads and then cancelled it again.
For some specific research here in Switzerland where I live, I have recently discovered the digital library of one of our universities - ETH E-Periodica https://www.e-periodica.ch/. It has all the Swiss trade register publications and a lot of other publications from trade associations - also everything that Swiss Textiles published to further export, which is a fantastic resource for ads and company information for anything regarding fashion.
A lot of museums today also have digital collections which may provide information, images of garments or photos. The Met is probably well-known for that, but I've found several museums here in my area who do the same - it pays to have a look and see if they have a link somewhere to an online collection.
For some specific research here in Switzerland where I live, I have recently discovered the digital library of one of our universities - ETH E-Periodica https://www.e-periodica.ch/. It has all the Swiss trade register publications and a lot of other publications from trade associations - also everything that Swiss Textiles published to further export, which is a fantastic resource for ads and company information for anything regarding fashion.
A lot of museums today also have digital collections which may provide information, images of garments or photos. The Met is probably well-known for that, but I've found several museums here in my area who do the same - it pays to have a look and see if they have a link somewhere to an online collection.
Vintagiality
VFG Treasurer
The OCR function is available for free and while it doesn’t help with images, it does allow you to read all the text.
I personally use a number of university databases, as well as the Vogue archive and New York Times timemachine but those also require a subscription to the current publication. Google Books as opposed to a regular Google search also produces good results for research
GemGem
Registered Guest
Different resources depending on the period.
For more recent vintage late 80s-90s I will often use you tube to watch catwalk videos from those periods, or vogues archive of catwalks. I also do the general trawling if I have something specific. I also sometimes look through my stash of glossy mags from the 80s and 90s and a few fashion books I have accumulated along the way.
For items older but post 30s/40s I will often search editorials, potentially newspaper archives too but rarely since I tried a free uk news archive site and cancelled once finished. I also love checking things like the V&A archive. For more general help I will use search terms for items I have no idea about to try to date something.
.....Although the VFG probably has the most expertise (FAB) members, the fantastic label and fabric resources and I would say I use it most often of all, I learn so much here.
For more recent vintage late 80s-90s I will often use you tube to watch catwalk videos from those periods, or vogues archive of catwalks. I also do the general trawling if I have something specific. I also sometimes look through my stash of glossy mags from the 80s and 90s and a few fashion books I have accumulated along the way.
For items older but post 30s/40s I will often search editorials, potentially newspaper archives too but rarely since I tried a free uk news archive site and cancelled once finished. I also love checking things like the V&A archive. For more general help I will use search terms for items I have no idea about to try to date something.
.....Although the VFG probably has the most expertise (FAB) members, the fantastic label and fabric resources and I would say I use it most often of all, I learn so much here.
victoryvtg
Registered Guest
how do you use university databases? I have come across the FIT one, finally, but it requires staff or faculty or student. none of which I am
Circa Vintage Clothing
Alumni
check this book/resources list out.
And you can find many great books in our Amazon Shop 
.
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thedecorouscat
Registered Guest
I miss my university login credentials. I have found that if you search for things through your local library (sign up for a library account) you can access some items which would otherwise be off limits to the general public.
thedecorouscat
Registered Guest
T
That’s a great list. Thanks