Palais Galliera’s donation to Parsons Paris library
On Tuesday 27th September, a van coming from the archives of Palais Galliera arrived to Parsons Paris containing 28 cardboard boxes full of books, magazines, brands’ press folders and fashion show invitations, all to be donated to our school’s library.
The donation comes from an ongoing collaboration between Sylvie Roy, head librarian at the museum, and Marco Pecorari, Program Director of the MA course in Fashion Studies. The logistics of the whole process were directed by Ilaria Trame, MAFS Alumni and now librarian for Parsons Paris, as well as intern for the library and documentation centre of Palais Galliera.
The donation consists of a total of 475 fashion magazines dating back to the 40s – including Vogue Paris, Vogue Italia, Vogue UK, Vogue US, The Face, Depeche Mode. The magazines come from the collection of Palais Galliera itself, as well as a recent acquisition that the museum accepted and that came from a former journalist, Mr. Hildebrand, who agreed to let Palais Galliera share his materials with other institutions.
Alongside magazines, the museum decided to gift the school with a total of 58 catalogues from its past exhibitions throughout its history: the first catalogue dates back to 1938 and is titled Costumes d’autrefois, an exhibition organised by the SocietĂ© de l’Histoire du Costume, a group of fashion and costume historians who gave birth to the institution of Palais Galliera. The most recent catalogue that is part of the donation instead is the one related to the exhibition Frida Kahlo: au-delĂ des apparances, that is currently on view on the rooms of the museum.
Coming from the documentation centre instead, a big amount of fashion shows invitations, brand’s press releases, alongside certain press original photographs have also been given to our school and will, from now on, be possible to be consulted in the library at Parsons.
Furthermore, the school also acquired a series of books about the history of fashion, design, and clothing construction that was gifted from the private collection of Joëlle Duhoo, who works in the conservation department of Palais Galliera.
This donation clearly represents a treasure for our school and our students, who have now the opportunity to research such an important base of historical fashion printed matter. It is sure that the donation, that is now in the process of being catalogued and stored in room 302 of the Saint Roch building, will serve the programs of Parsons, in particular the one of the MA Fashion Studies, with future starting points for projects, theses, and much more.
The Parsons Paris community would like to thank the whole team of Palais Galliera, in particular Miren Arzalluz, Sylvie Roy, Joëlle Duhoo, and Hugo Lucchino.
A big thanks also to Stephanie Lever, MAFS Class of 2022, who volunteered to help Ilaria packing the whole donation in the archives of the museum!