Yorkshire Fashion Archive

Based in the School of Design and underpinned by research excellence at the University of Leeds, the Yorkshire Fashion Archive is a collection of fashion garments and everyday clothing of major historical significance, reflecting the social and economic changes in the Yorkshire region throughout the 20^th century. 

The Yorkshire Fashion Archive holds around 1500 items of women's, men's and children's dress, accessories and ephemera, dating from circa 1860 - 2000. Items held in the collection are almost exclusively bought, made or worn in Yorkshire, many with accompanying histories, recollections and in some cases original photographs.   

The items held in the archive demonstrate the sartorial tastes of people in Yorkshire, also documenting the history of clothing manufacture in the region. The collection is used for teaching and research as well as public engagement activities such as talks, webinars and exhibitions. 

The policy of the archive is to ensure that clothing and accessories are not amassed in isolation but as part of a deliberate attempt to discover the history of the clothes in relation to the person who wore them. The collection reflects changing social attitudes and multi-cultural influences, economic prosperity, global trends and regional technical excellence in textiles and clothing. 

The twentieth century was a crucial period in the cultural and industrial development of Yorkshire. The collection acknowledges these aspects of Yorkshire’s history by exploring ways in which a society’s experiences, values and beliefs are communicated through clothing. The purpose of the archive is to capture narratives that articulate class and gender identities in a new way, one which directly links with personal histories. to apparel and socio-economic factors within the Yorkshire region in the 20^th century the collection attempts to document the many different associations relating to clothing. 

The collection provides a nationally significant resource for the development and support of education, research and public engagement activities, and is accessible to researchers and the public by appointment to align with teaching staff’s existing commitments.

Contact: Mrs Elaine Evans, Senior Teaching Fellow: E.L.Evans@leeds.ac.uk

Dress Rehearsal, Salts Mill, (2011) 

Wool Re-Fashioned – this was a collaborative exhibition between the Yorkshire Fashion Archive and The Woolmark Company, (2012-2013) 

Jonathan Silver: Romantic Capitalist, Salts Mill (2013) 

Snapshot: A Story of Family, Fashion and Friends, Barnsley Civic (2015) 

The Synthetics Revolution, in collaboration with ULITA and The Enterprise of Culture project, (2016) 

White Vintage – Looking for the Mistake. Corn Exchange, Leeds, (2018). 

Vintage Noire – Disrupting the Fashion Archive. School of Design, University of Leeds, (2019) 

Vintage Noire II – Future Fashion Factory. Salts Mill, Saltaire. October 2019. 

YFA showcase at the FTC Conference ’Futurescan 5’, University of Leeds (2022) 

Serendipity in Black and White: Considering Mistakes in Fashion Design, Space@Design (2025) 

Wearing Sustainability, A collaboration with designers Cunnington & Sanderson and phygital fashion platform Seamm, Space@Design (2025) 

BBC 1 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, June 2016: Living in ’66: Suits, Boots and Northern Roots, with Kay Mellor

BBC 2 June 2014: Shopgirls: The True Story of Life Behind the Counter, with Professor Pamela Cox

BBC 1 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, April 2011: promotional footage for the exhibition Dress Rehearsal, with Cathy Killick

Research informed by the Yorkshire Fashion Archive collection has been published in international journals including:

• Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Beauty and Style 
• Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Practice and the Fashion Industry; Costume – The Journal of the Costume Society 
• Uniarte Grafica, S.A.; Art Libraries Journal
• Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture