DMU
Dr Natalie Hayton
Assistant Archivist, De Montfort University Special Collections, Leicester, UK
What does your role involve?
As volunteering, teaching and learning co-ordinator, the majority of my time is spent mapping our collections to a variety of course subjects and modules, and then sharing them with students to demonstrate how engagement with archival resources can enhance their studies and research.
Can you tell us a little about the collection?
Fashion has been studied in some form at DMU since 1882 and there are many materials in the archive that chart the development of the prestigious courses on offer at the university today. Holdings relating to fashion also include collections for local industry and manufacturing firms as well as some famous alumni, such as lingerie designer Janet Reger.
What is your favourite piece of the archive and why?
While not specifically a fashion collection, the Papers of Andrew Logan, artist, designer and impresario is a favourite of mine and I always use it for teaching sessions with fashion students. Immensely popular, readers always become animated and excited by its artistic creativity, its dynamic representation of race, gender and sexuality, and all-round inspirational qualities, especially when viewing photographs relating to the Alternative Miss World (AMW) costume event which launched in 1972. Inspired by Miss World beauty pageants and Crufts, Logan developed an alternative fancy-dress contest like no other: ‘It would not be about beauty, it would be about transformation.
The Alternative Miss World would allow anyone to enter: men and women on equal footing: racial parity in a pre-cosmopolitan London; sexuality set free in a million guises. And everyone would be judged on the same criteria as the dogs at Crufts: poise, personality and originality’ (Accent Magazine, March 2017). As well as the photographs and other AMW ephemera, there are so many wonderful items in this collection including a stereoscopic viewer with slides showing images of Logan’s art studio and one or two garment/sculptures such as the ‘war and peace’ themed headpiece.
If you would like to view any of the materials mentioned in this piece
contact: archives@dmu.ac.uk
Useful links
A09 Papers of Andrew Logan - https://specialcollections.catalogue.dmu.ac.uk/records/A09
https://library.dmu.ac.uk/specialcollections/onlineexhibitions
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