”We have to know our past in order to create the future.” -Jason Wu.
Archives are becoming more and more important in fashion nowadays. In fact, major fashion houses like Dior and Saint-Laurent, as well as younger designers are investing in brand archives to preserve the heritage-conscious and keep inspiration for new collections.
Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé were precursors of archiving collections. They started only two years after they founded the couture house, and The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent became a huge company. They have more than 5,000 garments and 15,000 accessories, but besides that, they also have all original drawings, the collection boards, press articles as well as a huge collection of photos and videos.
But it’s not that simple. To keep everything intact, you have to store everything in very specific conditions: Air conditioning, humidity controls, anti-acid paper. About 10 people, mainly trained museum specialists, work on the preservation and the documentation of the collection, said Pierre Bergé. Its a long term investment to keep the brand DNA intact.
Yves Saint Laurent collection evening & Cocktail dresses board – 1971 / Yves Saint Laurent collection Summer 1988
Like Derek Lam said, who created archives since his first season, “it helps maintain a continuity from season to season. He is confirming the inspirational intention of the archive, Sometimes, revisiting a prior collection or specific piece from the archive brings up unresolved intentions which I want to explore further.
Furthermore, the rise of the fashion archive is inextricably linked to the phenomenon of the fashion exhibition, said curator Shonagh Marshall, who has staged fashion exhibitions at London’s Somerset House and helped establish archives for fashion houses such as Christian Louboutin and Alexander McQueen. Designers who are at the ten-year mark probably didn’t think their work would be in museums or exhibitions when they were starting out, but nowadays, its expected and accepted to place contemporary garments alongside historical dress in exhibitions.
The really important thing that designers have to know is that it’s not a one-off investment, its an ongoing project that requires consent attention. So most of the designers that have archives have a dedicated space for that. But it can be very costly for some of them, so outsourcing can be an option. Brands like Jason Wu, Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera are using a garment storage service called Garde Robe in New York, that is less costly and allows them to stock more archives.
In addition to this, not only are the physical garments important, pictures of previous collections, runway shows, exterior and interior displays can be saved and used for research, guidance and inspiration by multiple different sectors within a brand.
It’s not a quick way to make money. And, whether the task falls on an individual or a brand, it requires a lot of patience. Designers have to hang on to things for quite a long time. But theses archives can become very, very valuable.