An Eldorado for All Those Interested in Fashion – The Lipperheide Costume Library
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From an international standpoint, the Berliner fashion scene is gaining in importance. Moreover, for those dealing with fashion from an artistic or academic perspective, the Capital has much to offer that is top class.
The contents of the Lipperheide Costume Library, originally planned as a cultural and historical collection and donated by Franz and Frieda von Lipperheide, husband and wife and both publishers, to the Royal Museums of Berlin as early as 1899 as a "Collection for the Study of Costume", are a true Eldorado for all those interested in fashion. Here fashion designers and costume designers rummage for historical examples of fashion for their creative ideas; historians of costume and culture use the wide selection of sources as a basis for their research. The library survived both world wars without damage and is the greatest collection of its kind in the world. Since its donation it has been used as a reference library and currently forms part of the Library of Art. The legacy of the founding couple is attended to with great care, and this has been so for over 100 years now. The core inventory of c. 8,000 items has been carefully increased and supplemented to about 38,000 volumes and the graphics collection from c. 30,000 to roughly 70,000 individual pieces according to Dr Adelheid Rasche, the Director of the Library. Dr Rasche is also responsible for the high-quality exhibitions and lectures at the specialised library. The rich stock of items is primarily composed of works dedicated to the history of form and style as well as to the significance and production of fashion. They include standard works such as the compendium of costume Die Mode (Fashion) by Max von Boehn, monographs, volumes giving general overviews, lexica of clothing and biographies from Coco Chanel to Vivienne Westwood. What is offered extends from historical and current fashion journals, international specialist publications and exhibition catalogues to publications of the clothing industry and histories of ready-made clothing. In addition, the library offers numerous studies on research into traditional folk costumes, on textiles themselves and on the techniques of producing textiles. Unique treasures
The selection of images and written sources from the 19th century is particularly exceptional.
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Historically valuable example – so-called "rara", or rarities – can be examined by the visitor on application after waiting one working day. At the latest when he is asked to don white gloves, the visitor realises what extremely valuable treasures he or she has in his hands. Along with the literary works, the library also contains a large selection of fashion photographs, sketches, copperplate engravings and fashion caricatures.
Among the most treasured items are the 170 signed original sheets of the English caricaturist James Gillray from the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Director's favourites, though, are the roughly 800 fashion caricatures. Adelheid Rasche especially stresses the quality of the workmanship as well as the rarity of the collection of individual items to which she paid tribute in 2003 with the exhibition and catalogue Ridikül! Mode in der Karikatur, 1600 bis 1900 (Ridicule! Caricatures of fashion from 1600 to 1900). A diverse public
The members of the public who visit the library are just as mixed as the variety of literary and graphic items it contains.
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Dressmakers, designers and artists meet up here, as do students and professors. After all, the most recent publications and journals of worldwide relevance are available here. Anna Achtzig, a qualified stage designer who is writing her doctorate at the University of the Arts in Berlin, is also working in the reading room. She is evaluating sources of the "Lipperheide" that are not available in other libraries for her research work. On the other hand, everyday people and those who sew for a hobby are primarily interested in the pamphlets of the Burda fashion house and books of sewing patterns or about textiles, as well as in the current editions of Vogue, L'Officiel and Harper's Bazaar. For Camilla von Münchhausen for instance, a "fashion victim" from the centre of Berlin, the publications serve as an source of inspiration for her provocative logo T-shirts. | |
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The "Lippa", as students like to call it, sees itself as an institutional interface between the academic world and the process of artistic creativity within the field of fashion and clothing. On account of the quality and amount of the items stored, the institution enjoys international renown. Just like the fashion trade fair bread & butter, the existence of the "Lippa" is an important magnet for fashion specialists and up-and-coming talents of the fashion business. Situated close to the Museum of Art and Crafts and to the Kamer-Ruf Collection of Costumes, one of the most important exhibitions of fashion in the world, the costume library finds itself in an inspiring environment. | |
Dr. Iris Gräfin Vitzthum
is a historian of culture and costume.
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
Translation: Moira Davidson-Seger
August 2006
Any questions about this article?
Please write to us!
online-redaktion@goethe.de
is a historian of culture and costume.
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
Translation: Moira Davidson-Seger
August 2006
Any questions about this article?
Please write to us!
online-redaktion@goethe.de
