his digitized collection of thousands of fashion drawings and sketches produced by André Fashion Studios between 1930 and 1941 is the result of a partnership between the Picture Collection of The New York Public Library and the Special Collections & FIT Archives of the Fashion Institute of Technology Library. The partners aimed to virtually unite a collection of spectacular quality and historical significance that is physically divided among the two institutions and, as an equally important goal, to leverage open-source technologies to create a prototype of a fashion information and image portal that would provide access to costume and fashion-related resources held by various New York City educational and cultural heritage institutions.
This site is the initial realization of that broader goal, and brings into focus a group of materials that have until now been accessible mainly to researchers. The collection consists of original, hand-colored and reproduced fashion drawings from André Studios, one of a small number of competing design studios that created fashion sketches to sell to clothing manufacturers in the United States and Canada on a weekly basis. Pearl Levy Alexander and Leonard Schwartzbach were partners in André, with Pearl creating the designs and Leonard acting as the salesman. André specialized in children’s coats, and ladies coats and suits, and produced about 20 sketches a week for most of the year, beginning in 1930 and ending in the early 1970s. The site showcases the first decade of the firm’s output, up until the beginning of World War II, an oeuvre of significant proportions providing unique insight into fashion trends for women and children during the 1930s. Click here for more information about André Studios and the fashion industry in New York City in the early decades of the 20th century.
The collaborative digital project “André Studios 1930-1941: Fashion Drawings & Sketches in the Collections of the Fashion Institute of Technology and The New York Public Library” was supported in part by funds from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.
Explore an exciting period in the history of fashion through this spectacular collection of drawings and sketches produced by the New York firm André Fashion Studios in the 1930s and early 1940s. Browse seasonal designs like winter wear for 1937-38, search for costume components like scarves, collars,blouses, peplums, and raglan sleeves, or enjoy the artistry of famous designers like Chanel, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Lelong,Patou and many others. The result of a partnership betweenThe New York Public Library and the Fashion Institute of Technology, this site aims to inspire today’s designers while also documenting the significant role of New York’s fashion industry in the history of 20th-century fashion. An additional goal is to encourage continued fashion-related digital collaboration among cultural heritage institutions in New York.