Analyze
1. Divide your topic into categories using where, when, character, tone, etc. For example:
For example: Costumes for the lovers Hermia and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream. (William Shakespeare), recast in 1970s San Francisco
Where: San Francisco, USA
When: Late 1960s to early 1970s
Character: Hermia - Female, early 20s, wealthy influential family, rebelling against her father to marry Lysander, a hippie
Tone: Hippies, recreational drugs, rebellion, Rock and Roll music, political protests, increased openness about sexual behavior
2. Get background information -- Learn more about the city, and the country during this period. What were the social and political concerns of the time? How did clothing reflect those concerns?
TIP: Use Grove Art Online or Oxford Reference Online for quick, authoritative background information.
3. Find a few relevant titles in OBIS; use those call numbers to find additional material in the library stacks.
Background sources
The Berg Companion to Fashion by Call Number: Main Library, GT507 .B47 2010ISBN: 9781847885920A comprehensive overview covering designers, articles of clothing, key concepts and styles, The Berg Companion to Fashion provides a comprehensive overview of the history, meaning and theory of fashion.
A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion by Call Number: Art Library, GT511 .C85 2017 vol. 1 - 6ISBN: 9781472557490A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present in the western world. This set of six volumes covers over 2,500 years of dress and fashion: vol 1: Antiquity (500BCE-800AD), vol 2: The Medieval Age (800-1450), vol 3: The Renaissance (1450-1650), vol 4: The Age of Enlightenment (1650-1800), vol 5: The Age of Empire (1800-1920), vol 6: The Modern Age (1920-2000+). Each volume is divided into 1. Textiles, 2. Production & Distribution, 3. The Body, 4. Belief, 5. Gender & Sexuality, 6. Status, 7. Ethnicity, 8. Visual Representations, and 9. Literary Representations.
Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion by Call Number: Main Library Oversize GT507 .E53 2005, vol. 1-3; Also onlineISBN: 9780684314518An authoritative introduction to fashion, the industry, and the issues that have defined the field. Some 640 articles describe the colorful facets of couture and textiles, from fabrics of chintz, corduroy, and feathers to such garb as aprons, bikinis, and prison dress. There are color plates and nearly 600 black-and-white illustrations.
Finding Books
BROWSE: these call numbers have books on cosume and historic dress
- GT 500 - 2346 – Fashion; social aspects of clothing
- PN 2067 - 2091 – Costumes for performance, stage design & lighting
- TT 490 - TT 820 – Dressmaking; tailoring; technical considerations, needlework
Useful subject headings (some are linked to OBIS results):
Search OBIS for the following phrases as SUBJECTs.
- Clothing and dress (see esp. the 42 related subjects)
- Costume
- Costume design
- Fashion
- Fashion -- History
- Fashion design
Specific items of clothing
Tip: Search for specific clothing items. like hats, stockings or even hair, as subjects. If there are no/ few results try again as a keyword
- Hats
- Hair -- see Hair styles or Hair dressing
- Stockings -- see Hoisery
Keep track of frequently occurring call numbers and browse those areas of the library.
For more help finding books, ask a librarian.
Timelines
- Fashion History Timeline
Fashion history featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe dating from ancient to modern times. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on specific artworks, garments and films for those interested in fashion and dress history. - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Pairs essays and works of art with chronologies, telling the story of art and global culture through the Museum’s collection. - Tiki-Toki: Fashion Timeline
Two centuries (1750s - 1950s) of fashion from Kent State University's Fashion Museum. Changes in fashion are aligned with political and cultural events as well as technological innovations.
Encyclopedias and Background information