Costume Design: Technique & Craft
Hair Design: Technique & Craft
Make-up Design: Technique and Craft
Images & Inspiration for Costume, Hair, & Make-up Design
Museums, galleries, newspapers, magazines: all of these are places for costume, hair, and make-up designers to look to for inspiration. Below are a number of resources you can use to search for images of historical and contemporary fashion. You might also like to visit the Art, Design, and Finding Images page of this guide for additional links that may be of use.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume InstituteIncludes almost 35,000 records with images for costumes from many time periods. Part of the larger Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.
- Victoria and Albert MuseumFeatures pages on 19th- and 20th-century fashion and theatre, with links to related objects in the museum's collections. You can also search an online collection of 427,182 images from the V&A's collections.
- University of Washington Libraries Fashion Plate CollectionFull-color downloadable fashion plates from some of the leading French, British, American, and other continental fashion journals of the 19th century and early 20th century.
- The Museum at FITSpecialized fashion museum with a growing collection of digital images from its permanent collection. Collections date from the 18th century to the present, with particular strength in modern and contemporary women’s fashion. Also includes textiles dating from the 5th century to the present.
- Toronto Public Library, Fashion: The Complete SetFashion plates from this library's Special Collections department, featured in their exhibition The Gilded Age of Fashion: 1890 to 1914.
- COPA Commercial Pattern Archive, University of Rhode IslandUse Sample screen to search. Select a specific year and leave garment selection at “any” to get a greater number of results.
- VADS: Visual Arts Data ServiceIncludes the Goldsmiths Textile Collection, and a number of collections from the London College of Fashion, including a shoe collection. Other useful costume images are found in the Spellman Collection of Victorian Music Covers.
- Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1898)Complete run includes color plate illustrations. Magazine published in Philadelphia for women initially and grew into a popular literary magazine which published works by noted 19th century authors and handsome illustrations.
Primary Source Research for Designers
Primary Sources, like photos or newspaper clippings or even advertisements, can be great resources for designers in search of visual inspiration. Visit the Primary Sources for Artists page of this guide for links to databases that can connect you to a number of helpful primary sources.
Guilds, Associations, & Professional Resources
- Costume Designers GuildCDG is a union of professional costume designers, assistant costume designers, and illustrators working in film, television, commercials and other media (Description from Guild website.)
- Costume Society of AmericaFosters an understanding of appearance and dress practices of people across the globe through research, education, preservation, and design. (Description from website.)
- IATSEThe labor union representing technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, including live theatre, film and television production.