The Colin McDowell Fashion Library | Part 1 - Magazines, Invitations, & Ephemera | Online

The Colin McDowell Fashion Library | Part 1 - Magazines, Invitations, & Ephemera | Online | London

starts: 18th Feb, 2025 13:00
Ends: 25th Feb, 2025 15:15

Catalogue: Download PDF catalogue
Lots: 125

THE COLIN MCDOWELL FASHION LIBRARY (PART 1 - MAGAZINES, INVITATIONS & EPHEMERA)

Colin McDowell is acknowledged as one of the world's leading fashion journalists and commentators. With a career spanning over 30 years, he is perhaps best known for his reporting for The Sunday Times Style Magazine. On top of his many literary accolades, he has also curated several museum exhibitions, set up and run the annual design award 'Fashion Fringe' and in 2008 was awarded an OBE. We are delighted to be offering part 1 of his extensive library which includes British and American Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines dating from the 1920s onwards, along with rare show invitations and ephemera from historic fashion collections.

During his tenure at the Sunday Times his sometimes-outspoken views led to him being awarded the dubious title of ‘Journalist Most Banned From Shows’. One particularly caustic review of both Alexander McQueen’s SS 2001 eponymous collection and Givenchy collection induced the enraged designer to fax a letter to him, dated October 8, 1999 (part of lot 106):

‘’Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of a designer’s work, but it has been evident for several seasons that you maintain a consistent negative bias about my collections for my own label as well as those I create for Givenchy … I do my work with all my heart, integrity and tact. That said, I am obliged to inform you that you will no longer be invited to attend my fashion shows and those I stage for Givenchy’.

McDowell is renowned not only for his journalism but as a fashion historian and author. He has written and published 18 books related to fashion history – two of our favourites being – ‘John Galliano: Romantic, Realist and Revolutionary’, 1997 (which describes the designer’s early career, published when Galliano had just joined Christian Dior) and ‘McDowell’s Directory of 20th Century Fashion’ (1984) which includes many fashion houses famous in their day but now almost forgotten. His understanding of these early Parisian Houses was surely in part gleaned from researching these early editions of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar whose pages are filled with beautiful illustrations and descriptions of the trends each season for the leading couturiers. They also chart social history in Europe and the US at times of rapidly evolving changes - not only in fashion terms (adverts included the latest motor vehicles, bi-planes, hints on managing servants,) but also reflect women’s attitudes, lives and aspirations of the passing decades and as such are an invaluable and often amusing resource.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating parts of the collection are the numerous invitations, greetings cards, letters and look books collected over the years. Stephen Jones sent greetings cards in the form of cardboard party hats. Invitations from Chanel, Dior, Martin Margiela and John Galliano, to name just a few, are both beautiful and interesting, reflecting as they did the collections they were promoting.

Now retired, Colin McDowell desires that others will turn the pages of these beautiful magazines he has preserved and treasured – for academic research, as a design resource – or purely for enjoyment, just as he did.

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