Online Archive of California (OAC)
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Fashion
Library Special Collections owns a copy of the Gazette du Bon Ton, an exquisitely designed and colorfully illustrated French journal published between 1912 and 1914 that was the forerunner of Vogue magazine, as well as the rare 1914 color-plate book known as Le Vrai et Faux Chic by Sem, a work that sought to distinguish between fashionable women of good taste from the false chic of the unfashionable. A collection of more than two hundred drawings by the extraordinarily important early twentieth-century fashion designer Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon (1863-1935) documents her designs between 1913 and 1923. One of Lucile’s protégés was Robert Kalloch, who went on to an important career in motion picture costume design. His sketches, dating from the 1930s to the early '40s, are found in the papers of Peggy Hamilton Adams, a colorful figure whose voluminous papers document her career as the self-proclaimed "best dressed girl in Hollywood." Seventy-three large scrapbooks contain photographs of her remarkable wardrobe when she was active in fashion between 1917 and 1934. Collection also contains an important collection of sketches by Dorothy Jeakins, one of the most successful motion picture and television designers.
Rudi Gernreich (1922-85) was one of the twentieth century's greatest fashion and design innovators, receiving numerous awards for his work done largely in Los Angeles. His large (189 boxes) collection includes correspondence, clippings, bills, photographs, and family papers as well as clothing, accessories, products, and related items designed by him.
Another key twentieth-century designer is Bonnie Cashin, whose archive consists of sketches, clippings, photographs, diaries, videos, and examples of her designs. Born in Oakland, California, in 1915, Cashin spent her youth in Southern California. After several years designing costumes for the stage, she went to work for Twentieth Century Fox in Hollywood, creating costumes for more than thirty major films. In 1949 she moved to New York to open her own business, which flourished until the 1980s.
Fashion-related Collections
- Adams (Peggy H.) papers, 1911-1976
Peggy Hamilton Adams was a fashion designer, editor of the rotogravure fashion page (1921-34) and a host for local radio programs (1929-33) that dealt with fashion concerns of the modern woman. The collection consists of materials related to Hamilton's career as designer, fashion editor, and socialite. - Cashin (Bonnie) collection of fashion, theater, and film costume design, 1913-2000The collection contains Bonnie Cashin's personal archive documenting her design career. The collection includes Cashin's design illustrations, writings on design, contractual paperwork, photographs of her clothing designs, and press materials including press releases and editorial coverage of her work. Personal photographs and letters to Cashin are also included.
- Collection of Material about Clothing and Dress, 1860s-1980sCollection consists of magazines, catalogs, clippings, miscellaneous pictorial materials, and ephemera related to the history of clothing and dress. Includes European and U.S. fashion magazines, fabric swatches, and pattern designs. Materials in this collection are primarily in English and may include some French, German, and Spanish.
- College of Fine Arts. Student project, press, and event files. 1937-1985; undatedRecord Series 122 contains art project, press, and event files of students at the College of Fine Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, generated between 1937-1981.
- Connell (Will) papers, 1928-1961Will Connell (1898-1961) was a self-taught photographer. He opened a studio in downtown Los Angeles in 1925 and became a member of the Camera Pictorialists. He taught at Art Center College in Pasadena from 1931 until his death. His work included movie publicity shots, magazine assignments and other commercial photography. The collection consists of photographs, negatives, experimental work, correspondence, instructional materials, and ephemera.
- Craft and Folk Art Museum records, ca. 1965-1997The Craft and Folk Art Museum has been an extraordinarily active institution both in its first incarnation as the commercial folk art and crafts gallery, The Egg and The Eye (1965-1975), and then as the nonprofit museum (1975-1997) that carried on the gallery's interest in contemporary crafts and international folk art, and in the eighties added product design and vernacular architecture to its program. The collection consists of papers, publications, photographs, press clippings and media releases, slides, audiotapes, videotapes, films, memorabilia, and objects.
- E! Entertainment Library Collection of Picture Files and TabloidsThe collection consists of the picture files (consisting of photographs and slides) related to film, television, music related celebrities and current events as well as tabloids, collected by E! Entertainment as part of their reference library. The collection is in the midst of being processed. The finding aid will be updated periodically.
- Gernreich (Rudi) papers, bulk, 1940-1985Rudi Gernreich (1922-1985) was a controversial Austrian-American fashion designer and dancer, created clothes that celebrated the natural shape and movement of the body, including his most famous designs, the topless swimsuit and the thong swimsuit. In addition to fashion photographs, clothing, design materials, and business records, the collection includes portraits of Gernreich, personal materials, Bella Lewitzky Dance Company photographs and business records, awards, and the papers and correspondence of Gernreich’s family, including Oscar Jellinek.
- Hesser (Edwin B.) papers, 1917-1958 (bulk 1920-1950)Edwin Bower Hesser (1893-1962) was a prominent photographer who worked in New York and Los Angeles during the golden age of Hollywood and developed his own color photography system known as Hessercolor. The bulk of the collection consists of photographic materials such as negatives, prints, transparencies, and periodicals featuring Hesser's work. The collection also includes paper materials, such as miscellaneous manuscripts, business papers and journals.
- Jeakins (Dorothy) Costume Design Archive, 1932-1975Dorothy Jeakins built an impressive list of credits in theater, film, and television and came to be respected as one of the best costume designers in the entertainment industry. The collection contains costume designs, preparatory sketches, textile swatches, and designer notes related to her career.
- Leader (Roz) Art Poster collection, 1957-1991Roz Leader is the former owner of Art Leaders, Ltd., a company in Los Angeles specialized in museum and gallery posters. During her years as a poster publisher and distributor, Leader assembled a collection of over 1300 art posters, which documents exhibitions held in major museums and galleries from the 1960s to 1980s.
- Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives, ca. 1918-1990 (Collection 1429)The Los Angeles Times was founded in 1881 and was incorporated as the Times-Mirror Company in 1884. The collection consists of photonegatives as well as photographic prints documenting events and people in Southern California, the U. S., and the world. The material originates from the Los Angeles Times newspaper and includes glass negatives (circa 1918-1932), nitrate negatives (circa 1925-45), and safety negatives (circa 1935-1990). Also includes prints and negatives from the Los Angeles Times Orange County and San Diego bureaus.
- Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon drawings, 1913-1923Collection consists of fashion sketches by Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon. The color sketches are in pen or pencil with descriptions.
- Malanga (Gerard) papers, 1963-1979Gerard Joseph Malanga (1943- ) was a cinematographer, executive producer, casting director, and actor in Andy Warhol Films (1963-70), had several one-man photographic exhibitions, and was a poet. The collection consists of correspondence, literary manuscripts, periodicals, books, subject files, photographs, posters, and ephemera.
- Sant'Angelo (Giorgio di) papers, ca. 1933-2005Giorgio di Sant'Angelo (1933-1989) was an Italian-American fashion designer based in New York. His fashion design career began in the mid-1960s with textiles and accessories and as a stylist on magazine photo shoots. He started his own fashion line in 1968 and continuously produced clothing collections until his death. He was best known for his early and innovative use of stretch fabrics. The Giorgio di Sant'Angelo papers contain the designer's personal correspondence and photographs; diaries; early design work; drawings, designs, and photographs of his work in fashion and in other areas of design; and press and public appearance material.
- Television Stills collection, 1950-The collection consists of American television stills dating from ca.1950s to the present and documents a variety of television series, movies for television, specials, mini-series, and documentaries. The collection represents a variety of television genres broadcast by commercial and cable television networks such as ABC, CBS, HBO, NBC, and PBS.
- Trebay (Guy) Collection of Fashion Ephemera, 2000-2005The collection consists of invitations, designer "look books", promotional material, and other fashion ephemera pertaining to the Milan, London, Paris, and New York City fashion shows spanning the years 2001-2005.