A Critical Analysis of Practices of Collecting Fashionable Dress

This article analyzes various practices of collecting fashionable dress. The first section comprises a critical analysis of terminologies and theories that explore definitions of a collected object, a collection and some specificities of collecting fashionable dress. There follows a series of themes arranged in a biographical sequence of a collector’s lifetime and that of a collection. These include explorations of when in a person’s life they collect fashion and why; classifications and hierarchies of collectors and collected objects; collecting as an extension of the self; gendered debates; the spaces of collecting; shifted and dispersed collections; whether a collection can be completed in a lifetime; and bequests and legacy. The methodology draws upon evidence taken from interviews, memoirs, museum publications and auction catalogs, which are tested against the ideas of cultural critics and collections scholars. The emphasis is upon private collectors.

This article was written for a special edition of Fashion Theory that focuses on collecting, edited by Amy de la Haye.