Fashion Libraries: Between Material and Immaterial Shelves
From Firenze University Press Journal: Fashion Highlight
Ilaria Trame, International Library of Fashion Research
In the last years the digital turn and social media platforms have challenged a reimagination of what a library can be. In this realm, in fact, everything becomes potentially a library. In 2023, we see an emerging fashionability around the institution of the library, especially in the field of fashion, through the means of digital platforms. On Instagram in particular, we witness an emergence of several profiles using and abusing of the terminology that belongs to what was usually identified as fashion’s paper temples. To mention a few, @milanofashionlibrary, @garment_library, @queer_reads_library, @fashionbusinesslibrary, @veganfashionlibrary, or even @archived.dreams, @archivepdf, @archived and @a_r_c_h_i_v_i_s_t. These are only a few of the most popular profiles that, by appropriating of the terminology of ‘library’ or ‘archive’, seem to be addressing a large portion of the Instagram mainstream public, although the topic of the ‘fashion document’ does not seem to have the same appeal and interest for fashion insiders (and non) outside the social media realm.The use of terms like ‘library’ and ‘archive’ seems to, in a way, legitimise some hypothetical knowledge that the profile seems to have over a portion of the fashion industry and to gain a certain institutional recognition from the platform, therefore gathering the attention of the public. What is compelling about these examples is, in fact, the use of a certain terminology that belongs to a fetishist way of looking at the document — like the words ‘archived’, ‘grotesque’, ‘private’ or ‘hidden’, applied for example when identifying simply vintage clothing shops such as @thegrotesquearchive, @hidden.ny, @thearchiviststore — and that somehow increases the aura behind these profile, as if the definition of ‘archive’ itself refers to something unreachable and to be deemed as a true cult. Why do these names sound so appealing to the public when almost no interest has been shown by fashion insiders, fashion institutions, fashion exhibitions, to what an archive or a library usually preserves? Why are fashion documents so overlooked by the fashion system itself and yet their secretive appeal seems to increase the value and popularity they can gain in digital platforms?Another proof of the proliferation of the popularity of the library as an institution — and therefore of the push towards the expansion of the concept of the library and its practices after the digital turn — can be found in an emerging resurgence of the due to the loss of their materiality in the ever-evolving digital platforms. It is very common now to find on Instagram the profile of, for example, many museum or school libraries, in which they display new acquisitions or relevant documents from the collection. Some of the most notable are @costumeinstitutelibrary, @momulibrary, @bibliotecaiuav, @fitlibrary, all curated by their librarians. What these institutions have in common is that they represent places that tend to be quite exclusive in the way they are conceived. Museums libraries and university libraries, similarly to archives and documentation centres, do not often seem easily accessible to most researchers, as people might have to be students, book appointments or give reasons for their visit to what is a portion of a bigger institution. The Instagram profile, however, can represent a shortcut for this. As materials and extracts of books are shared on social media, an interested researcher might not even have the necessity to leave the house to find what is looking for, thus pushing towards a more curated, and even superficial, type of research (as the only pages accessible are the ones that are pre-selected by the librarian). It is, however, a more inclusive way of looking at the collection of a library, which might represent a risk for this institution to be rethought through the digital realm. The online in fact, has become a democratic tool to approach a limited number of objects that can be rare, hard-to-find, or even private. Therefore, there seems to be a necessity to rethink the discourse regarding the nature of these places and the access to these types of documentation too.An emblematic example of this tricky relationship between digital and physical library can be found in the case of the International Library of Fashion Research, that was founded in Oslo in 2020 by editor and publisher Elise By Olsen. This institution, now hosted in the rooms of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design of Oslo, is open to researchers as a drop-in, free-access type of public library. It first gained the attention of fashion insiders by appearing as an Instagram profile and website in what seemed to be merely a ‘digital library’ (By Olsen, 2021). Now that the institution is running however, the webpage of the library still serves to its original purpose, being the database through which researchers can browse and discover what they could possibly find when accessing the shelves of the physical library. This, I argue, demonstrates a possibility and elongation of how the two archives — the digital and the physical — can overlap and implement one another. It shows a possibility of the library to become a more actualized space. In addition, the website of the International Library of Fashion Research also serves as a space for micro-curation initiatives that can display a way of conducting research through the shelves of the library [Fig. 1]. In the page, in fact, while the materials can be searched by a simple search engine, they are also grouped and reimagined into curated sections, like for example by preference of the donor of the objects, or by thematic groups aimed to mimic a sort of exhibition display that the objects can partake into. Thus, these curatorial initiatives show another possibility of expansion that the digital realm can push. If in a physical archive objects and documents are carefully stored in proper boxes, acid-free cases and put in order in the fixed, stable shelf, in the digital archive this stability is often rethought, giving the possibility to the researcher to virtually witness the multiple ways in which one object can relate to the other and so on.Therefore, this example showcases both a necessity and an opportunity to reposition and rethink the nature of the library in contemporary times and to reconsider the essence of the fashion knowledge it produces. While questioning the relevance of the institution of the library nowadays, my aim in this paper is to showcase how these institutions are still a necessity in the fashion industry and are not outdated or destined to be replaced by the apparent more dynamic reality if the digital realm. More specifically I aim to demonstrate how the two worlds tend to favour and exchange with one another, making the former fundamental to the latter and vice versa. I argue in fact that understanding the current stake and identity of a fashion library means also to understand multiple methods of conducting fashion research nowadays.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2270
Read Full Text: https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/fh/article/view/2270
