I am a lifelong saver: from 1978 on I never threw out any Fiorucci poster or shopping bag, the Interview magazines I bought at Fiorucci, any issue of New York Rocker, the SoHo News, i-D magazine, the Face, Details, the East Village Eye (the latter two I worked for) all of which I still have (and much more). A few years ago I decided I couldn’t be the custodian of quite such a large collection of ephemera so I donated most of the fashion related material to Special Collections and Archives in the Library at the Fashion Institute of Technology (from which I have the A.A.S and M. A. degrees). SPARC is one of the world’s greatest repositories of documentation of fashion, including original fashion illustrations and photographs, rare publications, archives of noted designers, etc. During the 1980s and into the ‘90s I kept everything that came my way, every fashion show invitation and program and press kit and every lookbook, catalogue, etc. The images here are some of my favorites from the collection I donated to SPARC:
1: Paolo Roversi for Comme des Garcons, image/campaign book, 1985.
2: Pamela Hanson for Comme des Garcons, postcard, 1985
3: Nick Knight for Yohji Yamamoto, image/campaign book
4, 5, 6: Cindy Sherman for Comme des Garcons, postcards, 1995
7, 8: Katsuo Hanzawa for Comme des Garcons, postcards 1991.
9, 10, 11: Max Vadukul for Yohji Yamamoto, image/campaign book, 1985.
12: Gene Meyer, image from press kit, 1997.
13: Le Roy “King of Art” for Anna Sui fashion show invitation, 2002.
14: Nick Knight for Jil Sander, image/campaign book, 1991
15: Sofia Coppola for X-Girl catalogue, 1996.
16: Marc Berg for X-Girl catalogue, 1996
17: Michael Schmidt fashion show program, 1987.
18: Horst for Geoffrey Beene, press kit, 1984
19: Steven Meisel for Geoffrey Beene, press kit, 1986.
20: Steven Meisel for Geoffrey Beene, press kit, 1984.
21: Andre Walker, fashion show invitation, 1986.
22: Roxanne Lowit, Backstage at Vivienne Westwood, one of six of original prints, 1983.
23: Mario Testino for Bodymap, postcard, 1985.
24: Susanne Bartsch's New London in New York" fashion show invitation, 1983
25: Parachute, booklet, circa 1980
26: Parachute, booklet, circa 19 80
27: Javier Gonzalez Porto for Betsey Johnson, catalogue, 1985.
28, 29, 30: Betsey Johnson, catalogue
31: Michelle Byrnes for Betsey Johnson, catalogue, 1984
32: Harlen Kayden for Betsey Johnson, catalogue, 1982.
This selection is just the tip of the iceberg. The collection includes the invitation to Marc Jacob’s first fashion show and the after party invitation and the program and line sheet; the very rare 1984 Norma Kamali Spiegel catalogue; all the Comme des Garcons image/campaign books from 1983-1986 and 68 individual Comme des Garcons postcards; image/campaign books from Jil Sander, Yohji Yamamoto, Matsuhiro Matsuda; press kits from Willi Smith (including original prit photographs by Max Vadukul) and Geoffrey Beene and the 1986 press kit for Christian Lacroix’s last collection for Jean Patou; Grand Royal and X-Girl catalogues and a complete set of Betsey Johnson’s mail order catalogues and dozens of other things. You can find it all here in the library’s catalogue:
https://onesearch.fitnyc.edu/permalink/01SUNY_FIT/h4a0tv/alma990001518920204829
When I met with Karen Trivette, the delightful archivist at the time I made the donation, I told her that they could put the Yohji Yamamoto material with whatever other Yohji Yamamoto material they had, Armani with Armani, etc., but Karen explained that it is regular archival practice to keep collections intact: the material is available to researchers but it also tells a story of the person who acquired and saved all of these things. The collection is a sort of a guide to the donor and their times. Karen has recently retired after a truly outstanding decade expanding and strengthening SPARC and now it is in the very capable hands of Tiffany Nixon who I had the pleasure of meeting with recently. All the material I still have will eventually go to SPARC but I have barely delved into so much of what I have here (fortunately it is carefully organized alphabetically and then chronologically, stored in acid free boxes—my home archive). I’ll be sharing about the material i still have so do stay tuned for the next installment.