The Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library is the first comprehensive online collection for the interdisciplinary study of dress and costume history, design and making.

It brings together a wealth of essential resources – many of which are available exclusively in digital format – including primary source material, authoritative scholarly books and reference works, practical costume-making guides, exclusive overview articles, and videos analysing garments in detail, together with a timeline of costume through the ages. Students and researchers of dress history, film and theatre costume, costume design and construction will find a rich array of material to support their work.

With this collection, we hope to promote the study of historical dress via an object-based approach, highlighting the paramount importance of historical accuracy for students and researchers alike.

Content highlights

Bloomsbury Dress and Costume Library presents its own distinct offerings, as well as being a strong complement to the Berg Fashion Library – with which it is fully cross-searchable, alongside all other Fashion Central collections to which your institution currently has access.

Users can explore:

• 65+ authoritative eBook titles to enrich research, both scholarly dress history titles and books from the Focal Press Costume Topics series, exploring practical costume-making techniques.
• The legendary Norah Waugh’s classic works Cut of Men’s Clothes and Cut of Women’s Clothes exclusively in digital format for the first time.
• Three reference titles from the classic ‘Fashions In’ series by Richard Corson, covering Hair, Make-Up and Eyeglasses now exclusively available in digital format.
• A new and exclusive reference work, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design, edited by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, internationally renowned costume designer, providing comprehensive coverage of global costume design across film history. Volumes 1 and 2 available now. Forthcoming in thematic batches, with individual film and television costume designer biographies. Check out a few example biographies here.
• Exclusive contextual articles written by leading dress historian Valerie Cumming which will help students and researchers understand the historiography of dress history. Included is an up-to-date list of useful online materials for dress and fashion historians, including groups, museums, and societies.
• Garment study videos analysing key garments in detail, produced exclusively in collaboration with the Fashion Archives and Museum of Shippensburg University, US. Watch a taster of these videos below!
• Reference content that offers fantastic pedagogical value; explore dress and costume across cultures and throughout history.
• A visual historical timeline, tracking key garments, styles and elements of dress, as well as key costume designers’ work for film, television and stage.
• View over 800 images from our prestigious partner, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London covering musical theatre, dance, period costume, theatrical drawings and more.