About Fashion Design Schools & Colleges - Resources

Images

FirstVIEW: Collections Online. This is the premiere Internet publication for fashion show photographs from both the haute couture and ready-to-wear collections shown in Paris, New York, Milan, and London. The most current shows are available only by expensive subscription. More reasonable hourly rates are available one month after the collections are made available to regular subscribers. FirstVIEW includes between 60 and 200 photographs of each designer's show.

Industry information

Fashion Windows: The Internet's Database on Fashion Designers, Visual Merchandising, and Mannequins. This site was created by a Dallas-based freelance visual merchandiser and is divided into four main areas: mannequins, visual merchandising, windows, and fashion designers. Each section has a selection of articles on various topics such as selecting a mannequin or positioning a mannequin. Of special interest is the windows section, which include examples of successful window displays. This site also includes a discussion forum and newsletter that can be subscribed to via e-mail.

Virtual Garment Center. The mission of this site is "to provide a virtual community dedicated to servicing the apparel industry by providing information and interactivity." This site has two sections: markets where companies can list garments or textiles needed and a searchable database of companies such as manufacturers, jobbers, supplies, or retailers.

Pret a Porter. This site provides information on an international trade show for retail buyers and sellers of ready-to-wear and accessories. This site is divided into 15 "sectors" representing the different areas of retail such as professional or sportswear. Buyers can use this site in preparation for travelling to Paris for the live event.

Fashionweb. This site focuses on fashion in the United Kingdom and provides chatrooms, job listings, showrooms, and links to additional resources. An interesting aspect of the showroom section is Fashion-I, a timed slide show of current fashion trends.

Designers

Yahoo has an excellent list of links to designer web sites.

IMG Fashion IMG Fashion, a division of international sports, entertainment and media giant IMG, is the global leader in the management and production of fashion weeks and designer fashion events. Its portfolio of events in the United States includes Mercedes-Benz Fashion Weeks in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Schools

Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). For over 50 years FIT has offered degrees for those interested in careers in the apparel industry. In addition, FIT currently offers AA and BA degrees in textile and surface design, restoration, fashion merchandising management, and much more.

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. This California private college offers degrees in fashion design, fashion merchandise marketing, textile design, cosmetics and fragrance merchandising, and apparel manufacturing management.

Parsons School of Design. This famous school of design also offers a degree in fashion design. Parson graduates include such designers as Donna Karan, Louis Dell'Olio, and James Mischka.

London College of Fashion.Offers degree programs in fashion promotion and management and fashion design and technology.

E-Zines

In addition to print magazines with a Web supplement, the fashion industry has excelled in producing innovative, high-quality, and contemporary e-zines. A sample list of titles follows.

Yahoo has an excellent index of links to fashion magazines.

Fashion Click: The Online Fashion and Style Magazine. Covers fashion and collections as well as standard fashion magazine fare. In addition to the current issue, maintains highlights of past issues.

Fashion Planet. This online magazine includes daily updated news items relating to the fashion industry. Each issue includes feature articles and columns on such topics as accessories, beauty, travel, and the arts. An interesting feature is "Windows on New York," which is a map of 5th, Madison, and 57th Street, with images of and links to the various stores located in this area.

Fashion Icon. One of the first fashion e-zines, created by Mila Radulovic, a fashion and beauty consultant. It offers analysis and opinion about current fashion trends.

The Look Online. Sponsored by Smashbox Cosmetics, provides fashion industry information for visitors and subscribers.

Lumiere. Begun in 1995, Lumiere provides in-depth and up-to-the-minute information on fashion, beauty, and contemporary culture. Lumiere provides a free, daily e-mail notification service of the most current fashion news.

COSTUME

www.costumes.org. This comprehensive and excellent site provides access to textual information, historical images from classic costume texts, and includes a timeline of costume history. Chronological links to related costume sites are provided as well as links to costume museums, military costumes, masks and makeup, fabric dyeing, and much more. Especially useful is the Costume Manifesto, a how-to-manual for costume designers, written by the creator of the Web site. Access to a newsletter and discussion forum is also provided. Created by Tara Maginnis, costume designer for Theatre UAF, the Theatre Department of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Costume Page: Costuming Resources Online. This well-developed site, created by Julie Zetterberg, indexes over 2,000 costume and costume-related links such as museums and exhibits, costume history, ethnic and folk costume, theatrical costume, making and wearing costumes, and related sites.

The Costume Site. An excellent site, created by Lauren Podolak, an amateur costumer, provides access to costume, ethnic, and theatrical images, museums and history, organizations, and links to miscellaneous sites such as those covering corsets and underpinnings. This site is especially strong in its access to ethnic costume.

The Costume Gallery. Provides over 400 links to costume designers, goods and services, costume history, and recreational sites such as an online costume ball and online costume postcards. Created by Penny E. Dunlap Ladnier. Access: http://www.costumegallery.com/.

Fine Arts, UBC Library Web Resources in Costume Produced by the University of British Columbia Library, this site links to a small list of costume-related libraries, mail lists, Usenet groups, and exhibitions.

Images

Most of the sites mentioned above link to images and textual information. The following sites focus on visual information.

The Regency Fashion Page. This site, created by Cathy Decker, links to three pages: the Real Regency Clothing Page, Regency Fashion Plates, and the Men's Page, which show costume images from fashion journals and plates and photographs of actual regency garments.

The History of Costume. C. Otis Sweezey reproduces the plates in the "History of Costume" or "Zur Geschichte der Kostume," which was printed from 1871 to 1880 in Munich. These plates reproduce 500 costume designs from antiquity to the end of the 19th century.

Godey's Lady's Book.

There are several sites that are in the process of providing access to this 19th-century periodical. This important journal included fashion plates as well as poems, fiction, and advice articles. Two locations for this journal are the University of Vermont and the University of Rochester.

Associations and organizations

Costume Society of America.Offers information on membership, symposia, exhibitions, and scholarships and awards.

International Costumer's Guild. Provides information on this worldwide organization of costume professionals and amateurs.