Research Guides: Fashion Design &amp; Merchandising: Fashion on the Web

Selected Web Resources

Barbara Kawakami Collection
(Japanese American National Museum) This online collection of textiles and other artifacts from late 19th century through the 20th century was gathered by author and scholar Barbara Kawakami primarily in Hawaii. It is the most significant collection of Issei (first generation Japanese) immigration and plantation clothing in the world. A sample of the collection is currently available online with further additions in the near future.
The Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology Online Collections
(Fashion Institute of Technology) The FIT Museum in New York hosts online photo collections of fashion and textiles. These photo collections searchable and browseable by time period beginning with the 18th century.
Textiles Collection, University for the Creative Arts at Farnham
(VADS - Visual Arts Data Service) The collection consists of over 3,000 artefactsranging from an important collection of Coptic textiles from 800-1000 AD through to British woollen cloths, Kashmir shawls, African strip weaving, Scandinavian furnishing fabrics from 1950 to 1990, and notable designers and hand weavers of the twentieth century. Searchable and browseable by broad category.
London College of Fashion Paper Patterns
(VADS - Visual Arts Data Service) Searchable image database of 800 patterns dating from the 1920s to the present day. The collection can be searched by date, publisher, garment type, and designer.
Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection
(University for the Creative Arts, UK) Includes images of 500 of the designer's creations, digitized sketch books, and videos of work in her studio.
Goldsmith Textile Collection & Constance Howard Gallery
(VADS - Visual Arts Data Service) The core of this Website is the Constance Howard textile collection and experimental works by her students created from the late 1940s to 1975. There are two parts to the Website - the object collection and the slide collection.
Fashion Institute of Technology Library Research Guides
(Fashion Institute of Technology) The FIT Library has developed several research guides to help one do research on specific apparel- and textile-related topics. Keep in mind that the UH Library may not subscribe to the services that the FIT library provides or have the materials that are presented in their guides.
Cornell Costume and Textile Collection
The Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design maintains the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection, which includes more than 9,000 items of apparel dating from the eighteenth century to the present, as well as a substantial collection of ethnographic textiles and costume. There is an online gallery featuring the highlights of the collection.
The Westminster Menswear Archive
Contains examples of some of the most important and exciting menswear garments covering the last 100 years.

Scholarly vs. Popular Resources

In academic research, it is important to learn how to distinguish between scholarly and popular (non-scholarly) sources. While one can argue the value of both types of sources, the scholarly sources are the ones that are usually preferred when doing academic research.

The following is a table comparing the general features of these two types of sources:

Type of Source	Scholarly Sources	Popular Sources
Contents	In-Depth, Original Research Usually undergoes peer-review process (see Peer Review for more)	Current Events, Popular Topics, Interviews
Authors	Experts in the Field (e.g., professors, researchers, etc.) Experts in the subject they are writing about.	Journalists or Freelance Writers May or may not be subject experts in what they are writing about.
Writing Level	Technical language that assumes some level of college education.	Simple language
Works Cited	Almost always has some kind of Works Cited or Reference list to back up what they are writing.	Rarely documents sources used.
Examples	Journal of the American Medical Association Pacific Science	PC World Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Evaluating Web Sites

Publishing on the Web is very different than publishing in print — the traditional medium for scientific literature. Anyone can publish a Web page without anyone evaluating the accuracy or quality of the information. Reviews by peers, reviewers, editors, and publishers are not often applied to Web sites.

The sole responsibility for evaluating the scholarly content of a Web site rests with the Web site user.

Traditional evaluation criteria used for print resources and Web specific criteria are both useful as indicators of quality and should considered when examining Web sites.

Evaluation Criteria

1. Authorship: Is the author identified? What are the author’s credentials? For example, does the site include the author's position and institutional affiliation? Is the URL for an educational institution (.edu) or government agency (.gov)?

2. Accuracy: Can the data be verified from other sources? Does the author have an obvious bias?

3. Audience: Is the site intended for scholars or professionals, for lay people, or for students?

4. Currency: Does the Web site include the date it was created and/or updated? Are the links current?

5. Coverage: Does the site state its intended scope? Is it designed to cover an entire subject, or to give detailed information on one aspect?

6. Relative Value: How does it compare to other sources of similar information? Are there other more accurate or complete sources - possibly in print format?