Inside Oslo’s International Library Of Fashion Research, Where Forgotten Printed Matter Is Treasured

Collecting a certain type of fashion paper is seen as cool, magazines and fashion books are coveted and hoarded as status symbols. But collecting the other paper associated with fashion – press releases, cover letters, label tags – is often considered inferior, or overlooked entirely.

It’s this disparity that Norwegian curator and publisher of Wallet magazine Elise By Olsen addresses with her International Library of Fashion Research, an expansive library in the center of Oslo dedicated to fashion’s print ephemera.

The space opened in 2022 as part of the launch of Oslo’s new National Museum in the center of the city. Taking up two floors of a 19th Century Stasjonsmesterboligen (a former 19th Century train station) in front of the new National Museum building, inside is a brightly lit, stark space filled with industrial shelves neatly stacked with clinical grey boxes labeled ‘Gucci’, ‘Jil Sander’ and ‘Marni’, each stuffed full of every type of fashion paper you can imagine, including label tags, invites and flyers. Noticeable amongst the collection is a lack of magazines, with the focus of the International Fashion Research Library purposefully on the type of printed fashion matter that many people wouldn’t think twice in keeping.

The collection began in 2019 when Olsen befriended the cultural critic Steven Mark Klein and inherited his sizeable array of printed fashion materials when he died in 2021. When the opportunity arose for Olsen to have a permanent home for the archive in Norway, she was quick to organise a collaboration with the new National Museum in Oslo, and in the process has secured the legacy of the archive’s rare printed pieces with a permanent home in the Norwegian capital.

ILFR remain committed to creating an easy to access environment where students, scholars and strangers can drop in, grab a box from the shelf, and have their own moment of discovery. Here she speaks to Grace Banks about the importance of a decidedly anti-institutional fashion library, as the ILFR plans its archive expansion.

The library is right in the center of Oslo in an old train station opposite the new National Museum and around the corner from the Nobel Peace Centre. What did you like about the space when you first saw it?

It was always important to make the International Library of Fashion Research a really approachable project. We wanted to attract younger people and a museum like this can sometimes be a bit alienating, that was the last thing I wanted. So the location in the center of the city, and the fact we’re in a really old building meant we would stand out a little. We have two floors in this building – for me working as a curator before, I think there’s something so magical about having a very little space, and trying to make the most out of something that’s small and intimate.

We’ve kept a lot of the interior structure as it’s a listed building. I wanted the space to feel polished and a place where people could just show up and flip through things. We added UV foil on all of the windows to protect the materials so you don’t really notice the sunlight.

This whole space resonates so much with my most uncool fashion obsessions, I always keep things. When the International Library of Fashion Research was first publicised around 2020, it quickly earned a huge following for its earnest commitment to fashion print that isn’t magazines or coffee table books. What was the process like of moving that archive here to Oslo?

When Steven Klein asked if I’d accept the inheritance from him, it was a huge honour and also a big responsibility. I was travelling a lot at the time and didn’t have any domestic space. I mean, for that kind of thing, who does? But I decided to do it. Then I started a conversation with the new National Museum to get a space, because I knew that fashion was part of the focus in establishing the new museum. But I fundraised and conceptualized everything, mainly thinking to myself — what is a library of the 21st century?

How did you begin to organize everything?

At the moment everything is categorized by brand, but maybe it shouldn’t be – we really need to see how people use the space for a good while before we decide. But seeing as we are a free and accessible institution where anyone can come in, any kind of tourist or retired person – if they come in and they see all of these brands, I think that’s a more easy way to approach the library. But again, if you’re a scholar or an academic, you want to go just straight into the material. So we need to be a bit flexible for both.

A lot of the materials on show were made to be destroyed. They’re disposable – show invites, press releases, branded envelopes. Why was that something you wanted to preserve? It’s as though you’re bringing this discarded fashion material back to life.

The disposable aspect is something I find super interesting. When people received these materials, especially a journalist and even buyers, they would use if for reference and then just throw it away. A lot of the materials at the library are a very disposed of medium.

The collection is still growing, is that through people donating materials?

Yes, lots of different people from across the world are sending things. I know that Virgil’s press team right before he passed away, they had prepared a stack of donations. We still need to organise for them to send it over.

You have a beautiful 2002 holographic Marni invite as well as a box full of Dries Van Noten ones. How do you approach the selection you have on show, with so many donations coming in?

I think naivety is so important for me to hold on to. We’re a library, we’re not meant to have exclusivity with any brand and I think just removing ourselves from the political dynamics in the fashion industry is necessary. This is supposed to be a neutral ground.

People often write off younger people as digital obsessed, and it’s really interesting that you’ve founded this and Wallet as well, as a young woman.

I see it as an antidote to the fast paced world that we live in, and I think it’s really healthy. Young people buy more books now than before, which might have to do with wealth, of course. But I also think there’s an interest there, there’s a desire to put your attention into one object.

What impact do you want the library to have on people who visit?

I want people to feel unafraid of the space and its content. So you don’t need white gloves to look through anything, the room isn’t totally silent – and that’s because I want people to feel really comfortable being here.

A lot of what I have in mind for the library has to do with this idea of delay. It’s interesting when people are looking around the library and consulting the collection, they add and browse all the things that they like and leave them out, so you can see what people are looking at. It’s almost like a real life analogue algorithm, in a way you can really track peers and what people study, that concept is exciting to me.