Did you know that the National Art Library (NAL) subscribes to The Vogue Archive which can be accessed by visitors within the NAL Reading Rooms?
The Vogue Archive database contains the entire run of American Vogue from 1892 to the present day. It is fully searchable and comprises high-resolution colour page images of the work of some of the greatest fashion designers, photographers, illustrators and stylists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Vogue Archive is provided by ProQuest, so anyone already familiar with their database platform will recognise all the standard interface and search features. In addition, some unique searches have been developed specifically for The Vogue Archive. For example, you can search by company/brand (Adidas, Versus by Versace), designer name (Alexander McQueen, Mary Quant), fashion item (Ankle Boot, Wedding Dress), material (Angora, Nylon), or trend (retro, preppy, floral). It is an excellent and extremely quick way to discover a particular artist’s entire contribution to American Vogue cover art for example.
You can even print out pages from The Vogue Archive from within the NAL. Vogue’s publisher, Condé Nast, only allows you to print one page, or one page spread, at a time but it is still possible to print a whole article by printing each page/spread in it.
We have found that fashion researchers are always delighted when they discover The Vogue Archive, but this resource can also serve the needs of researchers in a range of other disciplines, including: fashion marketing, costume design, gender studies, visual arts, history, literature, film studies, business studies and cultural studies.
You will need to be in the National Art Library reading rooms to access The Vogue Archive, using the Library’s PCs. Anyone can apply for a Reader Ticket to the NAL on provision of proof of identity and proof of address.
The Vogue Archive is only one of a large number of electronic resources available for research in the NAL and we will be featuring more of these in future posts.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a final year historian at the University of Bristol carrying out research for my undergraduate dissertation. I was wandering whether I would be able to book an appointment to use the Vogue archives and potentially others in late December in order to work on my collection of primary sources for my dissertation.
Best
Alexandra Keates
Dear Alexandra
You are very welcome to visit the National Art Library to use The Vogue Archive database. This is a full-text digitised version of every issue of ‘American Vogue’ from 1892 to the current issue. You need to be in the NAL reading rooms at one of our PCs to use the database. You do not need to book an appointment but please do check our opening times and planned closures over the Christmas period here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/about-the-national-art-library/
You will also find links on registering for a Library ticket and how to request material in advance.
We hold a range of other fashion titles in hard copy too, including British Vogue. A good way to find which fashion titles we hold is to search the NAL Catalogue: http://catalogue.nal.vam.ac.uk and search for ‘Fashion – Periodicals’ (use the Subject Browse (LC subjects) search option from the drop-down menu) and ‘Costume-Periodicals’ for older material(using the Subject Browse (NAL subjects)search option).
We also hold a good collection of trade catalogues and look books produced by fashion companies which you can find by searching for ‘Fashion – Catalogs’ (use the Subject Browse (LC subjects)for recent material and ‘Costume –Trade catalogues’ (use the Subject Browse (NAL subject) search option) for older material.
Hello,
I am looking for Vogue Paris 90s’ to early 2000’s archive that I can view in London.
Vogue Italia 90’s to early 2000’s would also be a big plus.
Is there somewhere I can view these?
Thank you
Elizabeth
Dear Elizabeth
We may have already spoken about your enquiry by phone but for the record, the National Art Library has extensive holdings of Vogue Paris in hard copy, including from the years 1996 to the current issue (we do have some gaps and do not hold issues from the early 1990s, for example).
We also hold Vogue Italia from 2000 onwards, as well as some issues from the 1970s and early 1980s and the odd issue from 1992 and 1998.
You can check our complete holdings by searching for these titles on the NAL Catalogue here: NAL Catalogue
You are welcome to visit us to view any of these, details about visiting the Library are here: Visiting the National Art Library
Hiya,
Do you keep hard copies of early 1990s (specifically 1992) of British Vogue? I can see from the above post that you don’t have Vogue Paris from this time…
Thanks,
Esme
Dear Bernadette
I am looking to gain access to Vogue Archives and wondered if you could help.
I am studying for a PhD focusing on Lee MIller’s war correspondence and would like access to Vogue Archives to see what they hold on her in terms of unpublished material as well as the published work. I would like to come up sometime in February to view the magazine collection.
Finally do you by any chance have access to American Vogue for this period as Miller’s articles and photographs were directed as much at an American Audience as a British one and in my research I have noticed considerable differences in the length of text included and differences in the choice of images and layout.
Thank you for your time
Best wishes
Janet Harrison
Hello,
I am currently writing my dissertation on the presentation of mature females in British Vogue from 1980-2020.
I wondered whether these issues are available and free to access in your reading rooms?
Many thanks,
Hannah Curtis
Hello,
I am currently writing my dissertation on 1920s-1930s Vogue illustration covers regarding the artistic license of the cover artists and whether they can be considered as fine art. One of my chapters is looking at the influence of Japanisme and other influential artists at the time. The main Vogue cover artists I am researching at the moment are Helen Dryden, George Wolfe Plank, George Lepape, and Eduardo Benito. I was wondering whether someone from the archives could please contact me about some potential resources and arranging a time to come and visit the archives.
Many Thanks,
Poppy Dutton