Fashion

Fashion Plates, Catalogues and Artwork

Claremont Colleges Digital Library
A collection of 19th century fashion plates

Costume Institute Fashion Plates
From the Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many of images are in the public domain and have been made available to the public for free. The plates range from the 1790s through the 20th century.

Museum Collections

Colonial Williamsburg Online Collections
The online collection of Colonial Williamsburg contains items of clothing, textiles, accessories, and much more.

Fashion of Institute of Technology
The collection has more items from the 20th century, including lots of shoes!

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/De Young Museum
This clothing collection has many Indonesian items as well as Native peoples from around the world. There are some items from well known 20th century designers in the collection as well.

Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archives
A limited number of items from the Kyoto Costume Institute’s holdings are available to view online.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Digital Collection
An amazing collection of artifacts from artwork to clothing. The search function allows one to search by designer or type of clothing.

Old Sturbridge Village
The Village has a small online digital collection that contains some clothing items as well as paintings and artifacts from the 19th century.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History
While this collection does not particularly showcase clothing, there are many textile related items: from quilts and samplers to sewing machines and other tools. This site also features a Japanese American Internment camp collection with lots of photographs.

Victoria and Albert Museum Online Digital Collection
One of Britain’s premier museums has a collection of clothing (and other artifacts)