The creative process for large fashion corporations, from design houses to fast-fashion behemoths, is breakneck, furious and often wasteful. Fashion companies on average deliver up to eight collections a year and mass companies can churn out up to 52 “micro-seasons” a year, with new trends hitting stores weekly.[1] Season after season, week after week, ideas are generated, textiles are developed, prints and patterns are drawn, stitches, patterns and techniques are developed and samples are created. All parts of the product development life cycle are carefully detailed and documented to share with manufacturing facilities around the world. This process utilizes thousands of people and continues non-stop, every day, all year long. In order to keep deliveries on time, and ultimately, customers coming back for more, this process requires working twelve months or more in advance. And once the process of garment creation is underway there is an immediate need to market these collections.
Industry giants dedicate tens of millions of dollars a year to launch massive advertising and public relation campaigns in order to keep fashion feeling new and exciting. Like the creation of apparel, marketing also follows a relentless life cycle creating new visuals and ideas of engagement season after season. Ideas are generated, photo shoots are executed, media is bought, pictures are printed, websites designed, stores are updated, packaging created, direct mailers are delivered and the excitement continues.
How many of these ideas are actually new? How many times are garments recreated? Is fashion ever original? How many unique and innovative images and campaigns can be created year after year? Or is repetition reinvention? Are familiar designs and a recognizable aesthetic the keys to a successful brand identity and, ultimately, longevity? Does recognizing a brand’s past help build a solid future? Or does it matter at all?
My thesis is rapidly approaching and the process of research has begun. These are the questions my I will attempt to answer by exploring the value and meaning of corporate archives in today’s fashion industry. It will also take a look at principles and practices—how to build them, what the benefits are and the cultural effects they may or may not.
Creating archives for non-fashion related corporations has been well documented, dissected and debated. There are countless journals and associations related to the research and development of business archives. Many of these journals, paper and articles are going to help serve as research for my thesis. Yet despite the growing interest in creating fashion-related archives, evidenced by the number of diverse brands that have existing archives, there remains a dearth of information on the development, utilization, management of these private libraries. In addition, business and historical archiving, as well as library science are void of fashion specific information technology.
Creating Digital History has served as a wellspring of information, rich in resources and platforms that will benefit my thesis and possibly the end use of creating a real archive for my current employer. The use of Omeka as an archival tool, while not the most fluid or advanced interface, is basic and solid in its straightforward and uncomplicated user experience. I can clearly see how this could translate into a similar system for a fashion company and the development of a corporate repository. All of the information combined in this course has given me hope and confidence that a universal, yet customizable, archiving system for fashion companies can easily be developed. Now bring on my thesis!
Sources:
[1] Whitehead, Shannon. “5 Truths the Fast Fashion Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know.” Huffington Post. October 19, 2014.
Researching Greenwich Village History 
Such interesting points! There is an abundance of literature out there about all sorts of archives…except fashion archives. For my other class, Intro to Archives, I am writing my final paper on this topic. I have found that there are 2 main categories of fashion archives: (1.) Corporate (2.) Academically Based; therefore when researching I have found you must think more/search for fashion archives in a more broad sense. Hopefully this gap in literature will continue to close in, as more academic journals publish more articles. On another note, I have a book recommendation that you might enjoy 🙂 : “Fashion and the Art of Pochoir: The Golden Age of Illustration in Paris” written by April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary.
Thank you! I will gladly share my thesis bibliography with you—it essentially bridges the two categories above. Really it’s the only option as you have also discovered. I was going to write about my interview with a recent Costume Studie grad who now works as an archivist for PVH Corp. (one of the largest apparel producers in the world) and how they manage their collections. Fascinating process. Primary research and interviewing professionals have proven to be the best resources so far.
Omeka has been good for our purposes in this class, but I would think twice before using it as a digital repository for corporate archives. There are other products out there that provide much more robust metadata and digital preservation functionality. Preservica (http://preservica.com/) would probably be a good option for a for-profit company such as a fashion label. It can be a little pricey, but has both preservation and access and discovery, like Omeka does.