Brookdale Community College recently received a beautiful collection of historic fashion magazines from Norman Lavine, president of the Vintage Print Gallery and RetroGraphics Publishing. Lavine is a collector of fashion magazines from the 1700s to the 1930s from the 1970s. At 79 she decided to donate her collection to local colleges.
The collection Lavine donated to Brookdale includes French magazines from the 1800s to the early 1900s, including large patterns of fabrics that women of that period used to make the dresses featured in the magazine. Also included are large lithographic prints taken from sample books such as Parisian chic which were distributed in Paris, London and New York. They were used by women to choose a dress, and the company displaying the book would order the dress from the manufacturer. There are also several editions of Harper Bazaar magazine of the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s.
“Our students will be able to use the collection in our FASH225 Survey of Historic Costume course to learn about the types of clothing from various time periods,” said AnnMarie Hughes, assistant professor and co-department of Fashion Merchandising and Marketing at Brookdale Community University. “We will also use the collection in FASH121, Fashion Merchandising as examples of the earliest forms of communication and fashion publications. Our other fashion courses, such as our design courses, can use them as a source of inspiration in their own designs and collections. I think we will have many opportunities to use them during most of our lessons ”.
The students all agreed: “It will be really nice to copy and use these patterns.” They are really excited to read the publications and have them to enhance their learning experience.
Go to Fashion Design & Merchandising website page for more information on the Brookdale program. There are also seamless opportunities to advance your studies to a baccalaureate program in Fashion Studies with formal arrangements between Brookdale and other colleges and universities. For the transfer after Brookdale, go to transfer resources
