The Preservation of Physical Fashion Forecasts

Abstract

Archivists, librarians, and historians desire to preserve the past. Many aspects of fashion design, from costume, illustrations, and swatches have been archived as an integral part of documenting the design process. Trend predictives or forecasting reports are utilized by the fashion industry, yet are not preserved. These books are used to predict what silhouettes, colors, and fabrics will be popular in upcoming seasons, so designers, manufacturers, and retailers can successfully sell items that consumers want. These forms of ephemera have an original intent that was not meant to last long periods of time, and interviews with publishers, experts in fashion, libraries, museums, and archives indicate varied viewpoints about the need to preserve these physical books. I will present information about fashion and trend forecasting, along with interview findings about preservation of trend forecasts. I will explore why these books should be saved due to their documentation of costume history, popular culture, social history, and the evolution of the fashion industry from a designer based industry to a global communication of style and technology as well as address issues of digitization of trend reports.

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