The Costume Almanac
An Information Highway for Costumiers and the Home Crafter
Research
(United Kingdom)
Members have access to conferences, events, information, publications
and study awards.
Twice yearly newsletter
and journal.
London, EC1A 4AB
Spanning four centuries, the V&A boasts the largest fashion collection in the world and a good bookshop.
Permanent gallery displaying European fashion
and accessories from 1750 to the present day
and additional exhibitions.
Also has a free -to-use National Art reference library. London, SW7 2RL
Phone: 0044 (0)20 7942 2000 vanda@vam.ac.uk
Interesting facts about Elizabethan dress, class and society.
Interesting facts about medieval dress, class and society.
Established in 1975 this is a free-to-use visual reference library with subjects from costume, advertising, sports, textiles, trades and occupations, transport and war. London, SE16 4HZ
Phone: 0044 (0)20 7231 2209
Costume and fashion books and magazines to buy online.
Visits to their premises arranged by appointment.
London, EN2 0PZ
Phone: 0044 (0)20 8366 0722
Amusing but informative site analysing costumes made and worn in period feature films and TV series.
The Costumers Guide to Movie Costumes
Site containing research, reference images and making tips of costumes worn in the movies.
Fashion plates and adverts from mainly 19th and 20th Centuries of mens, womens and military dress.
The Costume Gallery Research Library
Subscription based website with over 5000 pages of period fashion publications from Byzantine - 1990s.
Collection of over 600 items of mens, womens and childrens clothing from the late 18th Century to the 1970s.
Visits by appointment only. Derbyshire, DE6 2GE
Phone: 0044 (0)1335 310318 info@hopehousemuseum.co.uk
Platt Fields Gallery of Costume
Housed in an 18th century textile merchants home the collection contains mens, womens and childrens clothes from 17th Century to the present day. Extensive reference collection of fashion journals and periodicals.
Manchester, M14 5LL
Phone: 0044 (0)161 245 7245 galleryofcostume@manchester.gov.uk
Changing display of clothes ranging from Georgian to the 1990s from the as well as study facilities to view
objects from the collection and use the reference library.
Bath, BA1 2QH
Phone: 0044 (0)1225 477789 fashion_enquiries@bathnes.gov.uk
United Kingdom
Places to visit
Online
Not a specific costume site but an approachable re-enactment group bringing Anglo-Saxon, Viking and the Norman era to life.
Currently building Wychurst, a manor house from the Late Anglo Saxon period in Kent, there is also a late Viking virtual village to visit online with information about the era.