This fall, I took the Intensive Freshman Seminar “Fashioning Identity” with Deb Christiansen, executive director of academics and a senior lecturer of fashion design at the Eskenazi School of Art and Design. Our final project included a research paper where I learned how to use the Berg Fashion Library. The Berg Fashion Library is one of many databases IU Libraries provides for students researching fashion. As my introduction to research in college, Berg was a simple and straightforward tool that would benefit anyone doing undergraduate research.
Sarah Carter is an associate librarian at IU’s Herman B Wells Library. She is also the library’s art, architecture and design librarian. Carter said the library purchases the Berg database on Bloomsbury Fashion Central as a subscription, which gives students access to eBooks, articles and color images.
“It tries to be fairly comprehensive in terms of the history of fashion and how that industry works,” Carter said. “So, you can go in and read a history of the development of the shoe. When did the shoe come into being and become popular, what kind of styles evolved over the years in different continents and different cultures and what is the current outlook for markets that are trying to think about developing shoes for the commercial sector.”
You can also research the social aspects of clothing. As part of my IFS course, I researched how men’s shoes were impacted by war, social class and evolving gender norms. It was easy to find this context and background information using Berg. You can look up keywords and narrow your search down by the listed categories. I found this especially helpful because, in addition to offering a variety of magazines, books and encyclopedias, the search results included images that had captions and pre-written citations.
The Berg Fashion Library is based on the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion which was physically published in 2010.
“We still have that encyclopedia that forms a core portion of the fashion library,” Carter said. “As eBooks become so popular and digital images are very much in demand, the Berg Fashion Library has become much more than just one encyclopedia; it has a plethora of resources in it now.”
Instead of having to physically go to a reference collection, you can go online and find the same content. Everything is accessible, which allows students to find articles that provide a starting point for their research. If you find a resource not available online or you want to have a physical copy, it is easy to use the database and search its availability on campus.
For example, I wanted a physical copy of the book “Dress for Success in the Popular Press,” which I found on the Berg database. By clicking the “find in your library” button, I was able to find the exact location of the book in Wells Library. This is the best reason, in my opinion, to use Berg, because you don’t have to wander around trying to find a book, and it makes citations easy for people like me who struggle with correct formatting.
Wells also has subscriptions to the Women’s Wear Daily Archive and the Vogue Archive. Both have over a 100 years of clothing history. The Vogue Archive has PDF scans with the original layout published in the magazine. Merchandising students can see how the top luxury brands are marketing their products without needing a subscription to Vogue. If you did not know about the archive before, you should take advantage of this free access to beautiful, clear images the next time you do a presentation or need inspiration. Women’s Wear Daily also has insightful information directly from industry professionals.
“Women’s Wear Daily is a kind of trade publication. People who work professionally in the clothing industry are talking about what's changing for them, what's developing financially, business decisions, et cetera,” Carter said. “There's a lot of style and inspiration if people are looking for pictures, if they're looking for history of certain garments throughout the decades, you can find it there.”
The Berg Fashion Library was useful for my class project, but I am excited to explore the other databases for future research projects and personal study. More students should utilize these resources because they are easy to use and beat having to surf Google for credible information. There is something for every sector of the fashion industry, past and present, all at your fingertips. I can’t recommend these resources enough to anyone enrolled in a fashion course or interested in learning more about fashion.
To access these online databases, visit the IU Libraries website. Sign in or sign up using your IU email address. For help with your research, you can make an appointment with Carter.
