Winner of the 2011 Dartmouth Medal, the 2011 Frankfurt Book Fair Digital Award and the 2011 Bookseller FutureBook Award for Best Website, the Berg Fashion Library is the only resource to provide integrated text and image content on world dress and fashion throughout history. Invaluable for scholars, students, professionals, and anyone interested in dress, it includes the Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, an extensive E-Book collection, a vast image bank, extra reference resources and more.

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What's New

January 6, 2012

Update 4 Live: New Articles, E-Books and Links to Oxford Art Online

The fourth update of the year brings a host of new content and functionality:

NEW CONTENT

 
NEW FUNCTIONALITY

  • Direct linking through to third-party hosted journal content using an OpenURL resolver
  • Activation of external links to Oxford Art Online for subscribers on SAMS as “Grove Art” (as well as “Oxford Art Online”)
  • Internal links from V&A images to articles on individual designers in the A to Z of Fashion

September 20, 2011

BFL Highly Commended at ALPSP Awards

The Berg Fashion Library has been awarded with an ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) Highly Commended Certificate for Publishing Innovation 2011. The Winner was announced at the 2011 ALPSP International Conference at Heythrop Park, near Oxford, UK from 14-16 September.

September 9, 2011

Update 3 Live: Met Images; New Articles; Lesson Plans and More

Now Live! More content including images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Berg has partnered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to bring 2000+ images from the internationally renowned Costume Institute’s collection to be available through the Berg Fashion Library. 500 images are now live on the site.

New this month:

  • Seven new articles for the Online Exclusives section of the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion

  • 500 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. This is the first of four groups of images from the Met

  • Lesson Plans with links through to online content

  • Several hundred links to Oxford Art Online

July 5, 2011

Berg Fashion Library Shortlisted for ALPSP Award

The Berg Fashion Library has been shortlisted for the for the ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) Award for Publishing Innovation 2011. The Winner will be announced at the 2011 ALPSP International Conference at Heythrop Park, near Oxford, UK from 14-16 September.

June 20, 2011

Reference Reviews and Booklist Features

Glowing write-ups in Reference Reviews and Booklist

The Encyclopedia and Berg Fashion Library received the following praise from Oscar Courtney, Assistant Librarian at Manchester Metropolitan University, in Reference Reviews:

"An absolutely absorbing resource ... I never tired of discovering many of the numerous and fascinating facts, contained within, and it was a joy!"

Following up from their starred reviews of the Berg Fashion Library and Encyclopedia, Booklist also ran a feature in their Focus: Inside the 2011 Dartmouth Medal Winner article:

"In a world of fewer new reference sources either in print or online, the hard work, will, and determination of Berg have come to fruition in an exciting new resource. Congratulations to the little company that could."

Read the full article.

Discover DIY Fashion

Discover a Future Collection

Discover Designers

Discover New Content

Discover Evening Dress

Discover a New Collection from the Met

Indonesian Indie Fashion

Hundreds of young fashion designers in Indonesia have recently begun to identify themselves as indie, producing a variety of urban styles and promoting themselves as alternative to the fashion industry.

As with Berg's very own DIY dress (courtesy of Vikki Rose), Indonesian indie fashion is one of a kind.

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CoPA Commercial Pattern Archive

Announcing a partnership to distribute the CoPA archive of patterns through a Berg Fashion Library module, launching 2012. The Commercial Pattern Archive database allows researchers and designers to recreate or date clothing from 1868 to 2000. CoPA-Online contains over 50,000 images (garments and pattern schematics) from 42,000 commercially produced patterns. Image © CoPA

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Manolo Blahnik and the Sexiest Shoes in the World

Beautiful, expensive, and highly coveted by many of the world's most fashionable women – the well-known "Manolos" are still considered to be the best designed in the world.

Discover the life and making of Manolo Blahnik, the most influential shoe designer of our time.

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Costa Rica

In our new online exclusive, read about Costa Rican dress: from this pre-Columbian alligator deity pendant, through the influence of the Spanish conquest and attempts to eliminate native dress, to the concern for a clean and modest personal appearance which resonates through Costa Rican society today.

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Bodices and Ballgowns from the 1820s to Today

Evening dress is the prevailing style prescribed by fashion to be worn in the evening.

Behind this basic definition, however, and regardless of the era, there seem to be surprisingly complex expectations related to the appropriateness of fashionable dress for evening.

Read More

The Met's Costume Institute Collection

Berg is proud to announce its partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to enable more than two thousand images from the internationally renowned Costume Institute’s collection to be made available through the Berg Fashion Library. Browse the first collection of 500 images now live on the site.

Read More