With the fall of the .com businesses, other online reference sites are moving toward pay sites. Please check fashionwindows.com and firstview.com.
The Costume Gallery Library houses the largest collection of original fashion publications on the web. It also houses large collections of vintage photographs.
Several historic fashion and reference websites do not take the time to clean their images. Most do straight scans and place them on the web. We pay careful attention that each description from the original publication matches the image. In several cases, we have found the image doesn't match the description or has been painted the wrong color.
We spend the extra time to clean our images to perfection. Many times in original vintage publications the illustrator drew an image to specs, but the painter would just throw the paint on the fashion plate. A good example can be found on this 1838 fashion plate. Please view its restoration process. Images may have age spots, stains, or writing on them. In some cases, prices from catalogs maybe on the image. Here is a good example. All of these ladies had text and large prices on them. Some had text that had bleed through from the preceding pages. This website took months of tender loving care to make these ladies look as the artist originally intended.
Another bonus for our Library subscribers is our daily Newsletters. It contains job announcements, workshops, costume & film reviews, vintage and fashion show listings, museum exhibits, and auctions. Plus you will receive updates when new articles or collections are posted to our Library. We promise to have at least two new additions to the Library every month.
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