Lynette Seelmeyer
Fashion and Textiles
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)
Collection: Fashion and Textiles
Embedded Files
Section 1: Introduction to the collection
The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) was founded in London in 1852 as the Museum of Manufacturers and with Queen Victoria’s 1899 laying of the foundation stone at the flagship location on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, the museum has evolved to showcase human creativity in every form with objects from 5,000 years ago to the present day housed in its collections. Within the vast collections of the V&A, as the museum is commonly known, is a fashion collection spanning 500 years, with a small number of pieces dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The collection contains clothing for all genders, includes an enormous textiles collection with samples dating to the 3rd century CE, has supplementary material such as fashion photography, and represents known and unknown designers and creators up to the present day, primarily in the United Kingdom and France, but also in wider Europe and beyond. Easily accessed through Europeana (Europeana Fashion Project) as well as Google; The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, e-Learning, and Online Collections available from MCN; and through the V&A website itself, the highly-searchable collection includes detailed metadata to Europeana’s standards, has multiple digital photos of each item showing views of the entire item as well as details, is routinely used by students and researchers, and is the basis for numerous exhibits over the history of the museum, including clothing used in the Shoes: Pleasure and Pain exhibit in 2015. The V&A began digitizing its collection before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the museum used time during the lockdown to add many more digitized items to the platform from its analog collection, ultimately making over 1.2 million items available online through their collections page by February, 2021 (McGivern, 2021). The V&A online collection history begins with the first digital platform in 2009, but the digital collections platform currently used by the museum offers easier access to items, faceted searching, and Europeana-standard metadata. The digital collection’s mission supports the overall mission of the V&A, which is to collect and make available items related to the history of design, including an imperative to collect items from the 20th and 21st century that support this mission and that are exemplars in the field of design. The V&A maintains high ethical and documentation standards for its collections, both analog and digital, and has a stated commitment to online collection access in their collection policy document. The V&A maintains the Digital blog that includes not only posts about the collection itself, but also posts about access, including the museum’s API and their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep the museum as accessible as possible without actual physical access to the analog collections. Most items in the Fashion and Textiles collection include several digital photographs, but these photographs vary in quality and number from item to item, which is interesting given that the collection also includes fashion photography artifacts. For the two items reviewed here digital photo quality is very good to excellent and preserves details of the garments down to individual stitches, fabric weave, flaws, and construction techniques. Unfortunately, none of the items considered, including the two selected for review, include any metadata on scanning or photographic equipment or resolution, so the technical analysis is based on my own, professional knowledge of digital photography. None of the items reviewed includes a permanent digital identifier or address, which will likely present future access problems as technology becomes obsolete.
Because the Fashion and Textiles collection within the greater V&A collection (which is huge itself) is so extensive, this analysis will focus on two dresses housed at the V&A that are not currently on display in analog form. The Fashion and Textiles collection was chosen for its easy access through multiple channels, highly detailed metadata, and personal interest. I was born in the United Kingdom to an English mother, I spent part of my childhood in England, I have visited London many times, and the V&A museum is a favorite of mine. I freely admit that I love fashion and particularly the history of fashion and make a point of visiting this collection in person when I am in London, just to see what they have on display at the time. My mother was a trained seamstress who learned her craft from one of Christian Dior’s own seamstresses, so I understand exactly what goes into making a well-tailored garment and examples of historical fashion, largely created by hand, fascinate me. The sheer amount of time and effort that went into creating fashion before the advent of machine sewing is reflected in modern haute couture, where these advanced hand-sewing skills are still used and highly prized.
The V&A digital collections can be accessed here.
The fashion collection is found by scrolling down to Featured collections and clicking on the thumbnail labeled Fashion, taking the user here. Users may also search the entire collection using the search bar at the top of the main digital collections page.
References
McGivern, H. (2021, February 9). Immerse yourself in V&A’s new digital platform of 1.2 million objects. [Blog post]. The Art Newspaper. Accessed at https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/02/09/immerse-yourself-in-vandas-new-digital-platform-of-12-million-objects
MCN. (2023). The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, e-Learning, and Online Collections. [Blog post]. https://mcn.edu/a-guide-to-virtual-museum-resources/
Victoria and Albert Museum. (2023). Collections. https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections?type=featured
Victoria and Albert Museum. (2009). Collections management policy. Accessed at http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/documents/collections_management_policy_revised.pdf
Victoria and Albert Museum. (2023). Digital [Blog]. https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/digital
Victoria and Albert Museum. (2015). Shoes: Pleasure and pain. [Closed exhibition]. Accessed at http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/shoes-pleasure-and-pain/shoes-pleasure-and-pain-inside-the-exhibition/
Victoria and Albert Museum. (2023). The V&A Story. Accessed at https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/the-va-story/
Section 2: Two major representative items from the collection.
Item 1: Sack: 1775-1780 (embroidered), 1775-1780 (sewed), 1870-1910 (altered)
This is a digitized representation of a dress that was created in France in the last 10-15 years before the French Revolution and is an example of the most formal ensemble a woman of the time could wear short of wearing formal court dress. The technical term for the dress is robe à la française, reflecting its creation in France, which was considered the center of fashion even over 300 years ago. Commonly termed a “sack” dress, the back was more relaxed than other styles of dress, with the loose fabric gathered at the shoulders and falling to the hem almost like a narrow cape. The front of a sack dress was typically open and the dress would have been worn over a detailed underskirt and a stomacher, which is a stiff panel, frequently embellished, worn as a bodice between the open front sides of the dress top. In the case of this dress, the bodice does close in the front, and the lady wearing it would have worn it over square hoops to help hold the shape of the skirt. The dress itself is highly embellished with feathers, lace, ruffles, ribbons, chenille, and raffia tassels on silk that was hand-embroidered before being cut for dress construction. The use of pale colors and small floral motifs shows that the influence of the earlier Rococo style was beginning to fall out of fashion. With the exception of alterations made in England between 1870-1910, all other steps of construction (embroidery and sewing/construction) were conducted in France. The dress as a collection item includes the dress itself and the petticoat worn underneath, with styling, accessories, and supports on the mannequin added by the curation staff at the V&A. Alterations made sometime between 1870-1910 were done for fancy dress/costume parties and while that alteration removed three of the petticoat panels to reduce volume, these were reconstructed by the V&A staff for authenticity in display after the dress was donated to the museum by Miss Louise Band. The metadata includes highly detailed information on provenance, construction, materials, style, and cross-references, including one to the Musée des Tissus (fabrics) in Lyon, France (center of France’s historical silk industry) and to the engraving “Les Adieux” by J.M. Moreau le Jeune. The dress is also mentioned in a book by Natalie Rothstein (referenced in metadata). Many of these cross-referenced items can also be found in Europeana. This item in analog representation is not currently on display. The digital representation encompasses 30 high-resolution digital photographs that include views from the entire dress on the mannequin to the entire dress laid flat to details of the construction, fabric, and design elements. No technical metadata on photographic technique or equipment used is available, but the photographs offer high detail even when zoomed in, including stitchwork, construction techniques, and fabric grain. The metadata does not include a permanent digital object identifier of any kind, which will likely present access issues in the future.
This item was chosen because it is a remarkable example of couture dressmaking at a very specific time and place in history: France during the later reign of Louis XVI, as the aristocracy was enjoying court life, primarily at Versailles, while the rank-and-file French populace and intellectuals were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their lives. At the time, France was sending bankrupting-level financial support to the American Colonies during their fight with Great Britain, a war that would ultimately lead to the creation of the United States of America, but the French aristocracy were ironically unaware of what was coming in in their own country. Women’s attire would change dramatically in the years after the French Revolution, led by Joséphine Bonaparte and her preference for simple, empire-waist dresses (as they are now called). The item and its associated metadata explain the curatorial context in detail and set the dress within its historical context through provenance and complete storytelling, with references to other objects in the V&A and outside collections, making this item an excellent example from the Fashion and Textiles collection.
In addition to the V&A collections page and the Fashion and Textiles collection page, the item can be accessed through Europeana by selecting the Victoria and Albert Museum partner and clicking through to the V&A collection from any of the items, given that this actual item is not indexed individually in Europeana. The collection and the item can also be accessed through the MCN Guide and through Google by searching on Victoria and Albert Fashion and entering the collection that way, searching on sack dress or sack after landing at the V&A Fashion collection page.
References
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2023, January 2). French Revolution. https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution
Rothstein, N. (1984). Four Hundred Years of Fashion, p. 126. London: V&A Publications.
Item 2: Watteau: Evening dress 1996 (made). Designer: Vivienne Westwood
The second item from the V&A’s Fashion and Textiles collection is a digitized representation of an evening gown created in 1996 by the late British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. The style deliberately calls to mind the 18th century sack dress style or robe à la française that was often worn by female subjects of 18th century painters, evoked here by the designer knowingly naming the dress after the painter Antoine Watteau. Donated to the V&A by the designer herself, the dress incorporates many design ideas from the 18th century, including the suggestion of side hoops, box pleats at the back, a petticoat, and a polonaise pouf on one hip, with elaborate fabric detailing on one shoulder only. Known for subverting historical fashion styles, Vivienne Westwood began creating couture fashion and ready-to-wear designs in London in the 1970s. By only including one polonaise and by placing the bodice detailing only on one shoulder, the designer has created a gown that references the earlier sack dress shown in Item 1, but presents the style in a contemporary manner, even as the fabric choices (shot silk faille, taffeta, and deerskin) and sewing techniques (couture design) directly reference the choices that would have been made in 18th century dressmaking. The collection item includes the dress itself, a corset, a petticoat, and one glove, and the metadata notes that an earlier version of the dress in white organdie was created for Lady Bianca Job-Tyron in 1994 for the Queen Charlotte’s Ball. The analog item is cross-referenced in a book edited by Amy De La Haye (The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion, 1947 – 1997), and the metadata for the item is complete to Europeana’s standards, which leads to the collection and the item itself being highly accessible. The analog representation of the collection item is not currently on display. The digital representation encompasses eight high-resolution digital photographs that include views of the front of the entire dress on the mannequin, a view of the dress in context with a gentleman’s evening suit presumably also by Vivienne Westwood, fabric details down to very zoomed-in views of the fabric weave, and the one evening glove included with the dress. No technical metadata on photographic technique or equipment used is available, but the photographs offer high detail even when zoomed in, including stitchwork, construction techniques, and fabric grain almost to the microscopic level. There is no view of the back of the dress, even though the back of the dress is described in metadata, which is an important omission on the part of the curators. The metadata does not include a permanent digital object identifier of any kind, which will likely present access issues in the future.
The item itself is not included in the Europeana fashion collection, but after finding the V&A Fashion and Textiles collection in Europeana and knowing about Vivienne Westwood’s design style, I chose it to show how historical fashion remains a significant influence on modern fashion. There is a straight design line from the 18th century French sack dress shown in Item 1 to this couture design from 1996, especially as the designer herself chose to name the design after a painter of that era. Vivienne Westwood is known for her corsetry and other styles that include crinolines and full skirts, all of which are reminiscent of 18th century attire. I have long been an admirer of her work and her approach to life and design within that, so it was a natural choice to have this be Item 2 from the collection. Widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential designers of the 20th and 21st centuries, Vivienne Westwood herself was unapologetic about her considerable abilities as a designer and style icon and this dress is very indicative not only of the breadth and depth (and continuity) of the V&A’s Fashion and Textiles collection, but also of the designer’s body of work. The item and its associated metadata explain the curatorial context in detail and set the dress within its historical context through provenance and complete storytelling, with references to other objects in the V&A and outside collections, making this item an excellent example from the Fashion and Textiles collection.
In addition to the V&A collections page and the Fashion and Textiles collection page, the item can be accessed through Europeana by selecting the Victoria and Albert Museum partner and clicking through to the V&A collection from any of the items, given that this actual item is not indexed individually in Europeana, although Europeana does have a Vivienne Westwood digital collection. The collection and the item can also be accessed through the MCN Guide and through Google by searching on Victoria and Albert Fashion and entering the collection that way, searching on sack dress or sack after landing at the V&A Fashion collection page.
References
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). (2022, December 30). Dame Vivienne Westwood – The Godmother of Punk. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-44683514
De La Haye, A., ed. (1997). The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion, 1947 – 1997, p. 83. London: V&A Publications.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2022, October 6). Antoine Watteau. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoine-Watteau
Section 3: Why was this collection selected and how it might be used by the general public?
Th Fashion and Textiles collection at the V&A was chosen for several reasons. First, I wanted to use a collection that was comparable to one at the London Transport Museum. While the V&A is significantly larger than the London Transport Museum, it is not so much larger that it is not a fair comparison. Second, this collection was easily found initially through Europeana, and although I am very familiar with the analog collection at the V&A, I realize that not everyone is as familiar with it as I am and being able to locate the collection through Europeana, Google, and other sources such as the MCN Ultimate Guide indicated to me that it was widely accessible to anyone who wanted to use it for research or simply enjoyment. Finally, I am genuinely interested in fashion and especially fashion throughout history, how it relates to history, who might have worn what when and why, and how historical fashion influences modern fashion, sometimes in a very straight line from point A to point B, as is the case with the two exemplar items chosen for review here. Anyone wanting to see the development of fashion in Europe might be interested in this collection, and I appreciate that it is indexed in Europeana as part of the continent’s shared cultural heritage. The only future access issue I can see is the lack of a permanent digital object identifier for any of the items studied, meaning that public access is incomplete and technology obsolescence (for the lack of permanent DOI) will be a factor in the future unless this issue is addressed. Equally, I know first-hand that the collection is used for research; my own cousin used another collection at the V&A (Jewellery) for research while she was completing her bachelor's degree in Art History, specializing in jewelry and objets d’art from the early 20th century. My own tenure as a university student in France let me do research in person at museums such as the Louvre and the Cluny in Paris, so this is something that leading museums understand happens regularly. By making such a significant amount of their collections, including the Fashion and Textiles collection, available online and with robust, Europeana-standard metadata, researchers of any type, from students to historians to designers and beyond, can access the collection from the comfort of their home or office or studio without needing to travel to London and make sure they are at the V&A when it is open. By including items that are not currently on display in analog form, the online collection is, I would argue, even more robust as a whole than going to the museum itself. Only researchers are allowed to access the collection items not on display and then only by appointment and with permission. By making so much of their collections, and in particular the Fashion and Textile collection available online and available to aggregators like Europeana, the V&A is providing access to important design history.
References
Victoria and Albert Museum. (2023). The V&A Story. Accessed at https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/the-va-story/
Section 4: How easy or difficult it is to find the collection using DPLA and Google? What does this tell you about the museum’s collection policy for the digital collection? What does this tell you about the accessibility of the collection for the general public?
The Fashion and Textiles collection at the V&A was not available in the Digital Public Library of America as it is not in the United States, so the DPLA was not consulted. It was very easy to find in Europeana by searching on fashion and limiting the partner institution to the Victoria and Albert Museum. A user could also search for the Victoria and Albert Museum on the Europeana home page and limit the results to Theme: Fashion. Likewise, if a user knew they were looking for a specific item such as a sack dress or a designer such as Vivienne Westwood, that could also be entered in the search field on the Europeana home page. The collection is easily accessed through Google by searching on Victoria and Albert Museum fashion collection or fashion and textiles collection and the results are at the top of the resulting list. The V&A is also included in The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, e-Learning, and Online Collections available from MCN. Because of all this access and because of the robust metadata included with each digital item, it is clear that the V&A wants both researchers and the public to access their collections for viewing. I appreciate that they are not only making their collections available to researchers unless analog items are on display; in the case of every collection at the V&A and certainly the ones I have seen in person and online myself, the wealth of material contained in the museum itself is a literal treasure trove to anyone who wishes to view it, learn from it, or simply enjoy it.
References
Europeana. (2023) Collections. https://www.europeana.eu/en/collections
Europeana. (2023). Home. https://www.europeana.eu/en
MCN. (2023). The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, e-Learning, and Online Collections. [Blog post]. https://mcn.edu/a-guide-to-virtual-museum-resources/
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