The Franca Sozzani Collection in the Library of the European Institute of design in Milan: a case study in the fashion industry

Abstract

This contribution aims at tracing the process of organization and cataloguing of a personal book collection related to a field, namely fashion, so complex it would deserve a deeper reflection, from the perspective of library science, on its peculiar and diverse documentary sources. The collection of Franca Sozzani (historic editor-in-chief of Vogue Italy until her untimely death in 2016) was treated following the Guidelines for the treatment of personal collections, developed by the National commission for special libraries and archives of the Italian library association (AIB), taking special care in the cataloguing of the items and in highlighting valuable works that are often held at very few libraries in the world.
Moving from a brief biographical note on the owner, we aim at explaining why the original layout Sozzani had deployed was not preserved and at showcasing the events, happening after the donation, that led to the current organization of the collection. An analysis of the collection follows, inclusive of some useful details regarding its size, sections, main thematic areas and dating of documents. Eventually, the article illustrates the cataloguing choices and the sources for item descriptions, whose historical and biographical characteristics become apparent and of which an explanatory list is provided. Together with the detailed and sometimes analytical descriptions of the volumes, these elements contribute to making the bibliographic universe of the collection a unique resource for scholars.