Fashion

Simplified sewing methods now being taught to thousands of American women through stores, pattern companies, and radio show how to assemble a pattern as Cynthia is doing. As they did in the last war, thousands of women are asking for sewing instructions. Streamlined methods make sewing quick and easy. To save fabric and time, size corrections are quickly made on paper before the goods is cut. 1943. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

You can trace variations in hair styles, makeup, accessories, hemlines, heel heights, and colors. Women wearing hats and gloves may tell us about the formality or modesty of an era. Images of women in illustrations, advertisements, and examples of undergarments reveal revisions in desired body shape over time—tiny waists, flat chests, long exposed legs, or cleavage. Material for clothing may vary with tariffs, rationing, or new technologies. Seasonal issues show how holidays were celebrated with decorations, food, and gifts. Maternity outfits may tell about views of pregnancy; children's clothing reflects shifts in concepts of childhood. Evidence for many kinds of history can be gleaned from these works.

Using the Library's online catalog, you can find information about periodicals on fashion and dressmaking held by the Library of Congress. The links below are canned browses, by subject, in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. These Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) can also be useful in locating materials at your local public or university library.

Browse subjects for fashion periodicals:

Selected Print Fashion Periodicals

Harper's Bazar
TT500.H3, 1867-1912; microfilm 05422, reels 430-50 MicRR.
Elite Styles
(1897-1929, TT500.E4)
McCall's Magazine
(1897-2001, TT500.M2)
Pictorial Review
(1899-1939, TT500.P6)
The Delineator
Call Number: TT500.D3

Using the Library's online catalog, you can find information about tailoring and pattern design held by the Library of Congress. The links below are canned browses, by subject, in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. These Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) can also be useful in locating materials at your local public or university library.

Tailoring--Pattern design.

Narrower Terms:

Selected Pattern Design Resources

Butterick Fashions
Call Number: TT500.B8
Published/Created: 1931-1957
Complete measurement charts for women's, misses', junior and children's garments.
Call Number: TT520 .L3 1955
Seventeenth-Century Women's Dress Patterns by Jenny Tiramani (Editor); Susan North (Editor)
ISBN: 9781851776313
Published/Created: 2011-06-01
Full step-by-step drawings of the construction sequence are given for each garment to enable the reader to accurately reconstruct them.
Vogue Pattern Book
Call Number: TT500 .V717

The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

Berg Fashion Library External This link opens in a new window
The Berg Fashion Library offers users cross-searchable access to an expanding range of essential resources in this discipline of growing importance and relevance including a specially-created taxonomy, an e-book collection, the Fashion Photography Archive and extensive color image bank.
Trade Catalogues and the American Home External This link opens in a new window
Trade Catalogues and the American Home explores domestic consumerism, life and leisure in America between 1850-1950. This resource presents a wealth of highly illustrated primary source documents that highlight commercial tastes and consumer trends, and provide a valuable visual record for a breadth of interdisciplinary study.
Vogue Archive External This link opens in a new window
The Vogue Archive contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.
Women's Wear Daily Archive External This link opens in a new window
Womens Wear Daily (WWD) Archive is the only digitized source of the entire run of WWD, widely considered the Wall St Journal of the fashion industry. From the first issue in 1910 to the present year, WWD Archive preserves one of the industrys most influential reads, tracing day-to-day news, opinion, and socio-economic trends, from runway reports to beauty product reviews.
Harper's Bazaar Archive External This link opens in a new window
The Harpers Bazaar Archive includes the complete run of U.S. Harpers Bazaar, from 1867 to the present, fully indexed and searchable.

American Women: Resources from the General Collections

Fashion

Selected Print Fashion Periodicals

Selected Pattern Design Resources