Eleri Kyffin & Danielle Sprecher (University of Westminster)

Problem: The newly established University of Westminster MA in Menswear is aimed at bringing research, design, specialist abilities and thinking to a postgraduate-level course. There are no academic written components, so traditional methods of delivery of library research are not envisioned as part of the curriculum. As often happens with other studio-based courses, library instruction sits on the fringes of this MA. Undergraduate and Postgraduate studio-based courses in disciplines such as fashion are difficult to engage in traditional models of library research and information literacy models such as ANCIL (A new curriculum for information literacy). The Westminster Menswear Archive is newly established and is designed to be a research resource for the course. However, it needed opportunities to develop sessions around the archive and the process of research.

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Opportunity: This was the ideal opportunity for the library and archive to work together. We wanted to promote the idea of deeper research as the foundation of the creative design process by both handling and exploring pieces of clothing and texts and resources in the library collection.

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Solution: We hybridised academic library and Archives and Museum information literacy models and programmes (ANCIL Strand 5 Resource discovery in your discipline, ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for HE) to create a new approach to the research process for studio disciplines. We used the “hook” of the physical archival object to encourage students to research more fully and to develop and creatively explore their research ideas.  We asked them to explore a piece of archive clothing or library material in depth then to use the process of analysis to build up ideas for further research.

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Eleri Kyffin is a Senior Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of Westminster She manages the professional librarian team who work with the media arts and design students at the Harrow Campus. Eleri takes a lead role in ensuring effective links between academic staff and the Library, and designs and delivers information skills programmes for all levels of learning, from basic induction to research.

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Danielle Sprecher is the Curator of the University of Westminster Menswear Archive. The archive has been established as part of the new Menswear MA course the University is now offering to encourage and develop the study of menswear design from a technical and functional point of view. It is intended to advance the general knowledge of menswear as a design discipline and to be used as a resource tool to inform contemporary menswear design.

Danielle’s doctoral thesis, awarded by the University of Leeds in 2016, is entitled ‘Fashion for the High Street: The Design and Making of Menswear in Leeds 1945-1980’. Her research explored the important contribution of the Leeds tailoring industry to the production and consumption of men’s high street fashion in a period of transformation and change. The Leeds menswear industry – including national chains such as Montague Burton Ltd and Joseph Hepworth & Son – was significant throughout most of the twentieth century producing substantial proportions of men’s suits and tailored garments. Before beginning her PHD in 2011, Danielle worked for five years in the museum sector, most recently as the costume curator for Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, as well as in the Exhibitions Department at the V&A.