LCF Archives move to East Bank
- Written byCentre for Fashion Curation, Chloe Gilbert
- Published date 01 December 2023
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The move to our new site at London College of Fashion, East Bank, has undoubtedly been a mammoth task for all teams involved. Since early summer 2023, we had been preparing for the physical move of the LCF Archives to our new Learning Studio and store spaces.
London College of Fashion Archives holds a diverse and unique set of collections, which means that transporting these collections is not exactly straightforward. The move was carried out in multiple phases spread over summer. Firstly, while we were still based in the John Prince’s Street building, we focused on repacking collections and archives such as our garments and shoes, so that they were in the best possible condition to be transported in. This meant that upon arrival at East Bank, most objects could go directly into their new locations.
The physical move from John Prince’s Street to East Bank was completed over several stints and we have just finished our final courier trip this November. As we are a very small team at LCF Archives, we had the assistance of MA Fashion Curation & Cultural Programming students to help us with the packing of many delicate objects including mannequins, journals, hats, shoes and more.
One exciting aspect about moving an entire archive is that you are given the opportunity to uncover objects that you may not have previously encountered. We came across a Christian Dior dress dated to the 1950s, which had been a past student’s project on a UAL Conservation course. We were able to bring to light objects that may have been forgotten or accidentally hidden, and consequently positively navigate the future of these objects going forward.
Once the collections had all arrived at East Bank, we were tasked with unpacking, repacking, and reordering the archives to fit into our new space. Fortunately, the location of objects had been thoroughly thought out by LCF Archives Manager, Susanna Cordner, long before the physical move took place. Most objects are now in their new home; however, we are still settling into our new Learning Studio and Store. With new store additions such as pull-out drawers, we can now partially display delicate collections such as our underwear collections, that are better suited out of archival boxes.
From October, we slowly began resuming our normal Archives services and offer. We are now open for limited bookable research appointments via archives@fashion.arts.ac.uk. Students can keep an eye on our Moodle and SharePoint pages for upcoming open sessions, workshops, and displays to take place in the LCF Archives Learning Studio in Spring 2024.
Chloe Gilbert, LCF Archives and Curatorial Assistant