Fashion Columbia Study Collection

The Fashion Columbia Study Collection (FCSC) was founded in 1989, to serve as a teaching tool for Fashion Design students. Over the years, the collection has grown to include approximately 6,000 items of dress and dates from 1890 to today. Items in the collection include:

• Women’s, Men’s, and Children’s clothing
• Fashion Designers: European, American and Japanese
• Military Uniforms: WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc.
• Ethnic Collection: indigenous dress from around the world
• Accessories: bags, shoes, jewelry, hats, etc.

In addition, there is a growing library comprising books, magazines, patterns, designer files, store archives, and a general dress and merchandising ephemera collection to facilitate deeper and broader research opportunities. This library and the collection are used as an interdisciplinary approach to teaching history, technology, and aesthetics. This is accomplished by providing:

• Access to faculty and students from the entire college
• A targeted acquisitions policy
• Maintaining on-going research into various aspects of the collection and the history of dress

The Fashion Columbia Study Collection is located on the 8th floor of the 618 South Michigan Avenue building of Columbia College Chicago and is available by appointment only. Please see Research Information and Scheduling an Appointment for more specifics.

Anna Mary LeBlanc, Acting Collections Manager
aleblanc@colum.edu; 312.369.6283

FCSC Graduate Assistant
fashiongradasst@colum.edu; 312.369.6285

Effective January 2010