YNAP in fashion show archive initiative with Bloomsbury

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 18, 2018

Yoox Net-A-Porter Group (YNAP) and Bloomsbury on Wednesday announced a partnership to make “rare fashion show footage pre-dating the rise of digital formats” available to the educational market for the first time.” 

The YNAP Runway Archive Collection is claimed to offer “an unrivalled window onto fashion history between 1979 and 2003.”

The company said it has been “digitising and adding descriptors since that time to make the extraordinary content fully discoverable, while also working closely with key fashion institutions to support student learning.”

Showcasing hundreds of hours of footage from key designers globally, there are 3,000 videos covering a major transformational period in the fashion sector and highlighting the evolution of the fashion show from a purely commercial event to a consumer brand spectacle.

Kathryn Earle, Managing Director of Bloomsbury Digital Resources, said: “The period covered by the archive saw the disruptive impact of innovative designers such as the Antwerp Six, Rei Kawakubo and Hussein Chalayan; it spans more than two decades of London, Paris, New York and Milan runway shows and includes absolutely priceless footage, such as Alexander McQueen’s 1992 Jack the Ripper graduate show, Jean Paul Gaultier’s controversial ‘Rabbi Chic’ show, extraordinary Westwood and rare Galliano, as well as the radical Belgian Martin Margiela. 

“It is a treasure trove for fashion students and researchers as well as anyone interested in broader cultural and aesthetic trends of the period. It’s a miracle that this footage has survived. Alongside a rapidly growing suite of products that contribute to Bloomsbury’s digital strategy, this archive will be an absolute jewel in our fashion offering.”

The footage will be accompanied by a large number of “exclusive, scholarly articles providing essential context.” These will be curated by fashion historian and Director of the Museum at FIT in New York, Dr Valerie Steele.

The content will be available for streaming on the Bloomsbury Fashion central platform from next year.