Digital Fashion and Costume Libraries: The Casey Fashion Plates, Los Angeles Public Library

Researching the history of fashion and costume online has taken grand leaps recently. In part to sort out the best from the rest, I have a short series of posts here on digital costume and fashion image collections now available to the public online. I thought I'd start with the Los Angeles public library, because a girl has to have some loyalty to her home base.

The Casey Collection of Fashion Plates consists of original fashion plates, spanning the years from 1780 to 1880. This huge collection has over 6,200 images, and that's alot to sort through, but the search engine is easy to use when looking for a specific year's costume plates. The images come from both American and British publications.

Overall review: I found this huge site to be well organized and easy to search. The images are easy to enlarge using a touch screen and the quality of those enlargements is excellent. I would recommend this to anyone needing a large body of images for research on a specific year or era between 1780 and 1880.

Improvements: I would have liked each image to be dated in the general search pages, as they are not in chronological order. The search is by year only, terms and other details cannot be searched. I would like to be able to search by decade, rather than having to enter 10 searches in order to see a decade of plates.

How it works:

Images per page: setting from 10 to 50 are available

Text per image on the search page: none

Text per image on the detail page: date, title, collection and item I.D. This does not include notes on apparel or other details in the image

Enlargement: (+) icon on upper right of page brings up the image in large scale on page. This can be further enlarged by using a touch screen, or the ctrl/+ keyboard

Search: "search collection for" box will bring up images by YEAR only. Does not search by decade or garment type.

Return: "return to search browser" brings user back to first page to start a new search

Speed: I found this to search and load quickly.

Copy: no, images cannot be reproduced

Peterson's Magazine: Victorian Fashion Resource, 1850 - 1888

Peterson's ladies magazines were an American staple during the last half of the 19th century when so many women lived in rural or isolated communities. These magazines brought serial stories, crafts, home tips and just about everything else you would expect from a home and life-style blog today. Even fashion illustrations were included, so that women could keep up their appearances, even on the prairie or at a small town wedding.

The magazine issues also recall the romantic Victorian past.  These illustrations from the winter of 1888 seem perfect for a dreamy Victorian romance film with a few Christmas holiday scenes where our leading lady is seen wrapped in rich red velvet and fur.

Owning or finding copies of these wonderful magazines is difficult, but having them available online opens up another world. Bound issues from 1850 through 1888 are there for the looking. While the magazines contain mostly fiction and written essays, each monthly magazine had an illustrated center section (the first staple center fold!). As time went by, there were more illustrations in each issue, showing colored fashion plates, accessories and home crafts popular at the time.

Today this information can be inspiring, offering new viewpoints, ideas, and concepts that can be translated into modern life, or at least adapted into Steam Punk costumes or copied for more accurate period apparel.

These illustrations are from the first six month volume from 1888. A full list of links to the 1850 through 1888 volumes are available HERE. This goes perfectly with hot chocolate on a rainy winter afternoon.

Great VINTAGE FASHION blogs

Here's a few Vintage Fashion blogs that I think are great fun.
See one you haven't visited before?
Cruise by and say "hi".

Couture Allure Vintage Fashion
Such eye candy! I just love to see what beauties she's found. They are always gorgeous.

Wearing History
Neat articles about fashion history, along with sewing projects.
It's a fun read.

Vestedbee Vintage
I love the way she styles and wears her vintage finds.
This is a great jumping off point into fashion trends with vintage pieces.


Image photo: Fall/Winter 1960
Both outfits are in plaid wool by Jacques Tiffeau, who won his first Coty Award that year as an American designer.

Vintage Fashion: Books to Collect, a Review

Review of Books on Vintage Fashion or Costume History

A World of Costumes in Cutout
Hello Gorgeous!
70's Fashion Fiascos
Encyclopedia of World Costume
Dressing the Part
History of Costume
Fashion: The Changing Shape of Fashion Through the Years

If you read this blog, you probably have more than a passing interest in vintage fashion or costume history. Collecting a good library of books is essential for inspiration, dating, and general research into fashion eras. The following books are a few good ones. Some are recent publications, one is over 50 years old. They all 'stand up' to the test: nice to look at, with good information.


A World of Costume in Cutout is colorful and well illustrated. This paperback book is designed to be cut up and made into standing paper dolls arranged in scenic rooms. The fashion illustrations show historical examples in gorgeous color, making it hard to even think of cutting up this book's pages.


Hello Gorgeous is a tiny book, packed with terrific full color beauty ads from the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. It is a great resource for graphic artists, fashion historians and those who love vintage fashion or want to re-create their own vintage look in hair and makeup.


70s Fashion Fiascos is full of great color photos from apparel catalogs of the 1970's. This includes shoes and other accessories, as well as amazing photos of men's wear during that decade (did they really look like that?). Whether you collect or wear vintage, design fashion or costumes, this little book is a must for your bookshelf.


Encyclopedia of World Costume is an excellent book to use when looking for ideas, dating something, designing costume or fashion. The illustrations are line drawings with lots of great details. If you ever watched a movie and wondered about the costume era, this book will help you find that information. It is arranged by alphabetic topic, rather than historical order.


Dressing the Part was published in 1950 as a revision to a 1938 costume history book. It has excellent information on historical costume for the costume designer, with special references on the era itself. The early 20th century section is a first hand account. It is illustrated with black line drawings, a reminder of the days when every costumer had to sketch her own drawings by hand. The author was the costumer at the famed Pasadena Playhouse during its golden years, so this is a sought after volume.


History of Costume was for many generations of costumers their bible. It has gorgeous line drawings, with occasional black and white photos of actual garments of the period. Collect this and you will have one of the best respected books on historical costume available.

Fashion, The Changing Shape of Fashion Through the Years:
Published in the 1970's, this book is illustrated with color and black and white photos, many from the 60's and 70's. Original paintings from historical eras are included, which give excellent examples of how fashion was worn by real people. This is a great book for anyone who wants to build their understanding of historical fashion: costumer, fashion designer or vintage fashion collector.



BOOK LIST

A World of Costumes in Cutout, Lowndes and Kailer

Hello Gorgeous, Rachel C. Weingarten

70's Fashion Fiascos, Maureen Valdes Marsh

Encyclopedia of World Costume, Doreen Yarwood

Dressing the Part, Fairfax Proudfit Walkup

History of Costume, Blanche Payne

Fashion: The Changing Shape of Fashion Through the Years, Jane Dorner