“What is more important in a moment of extreme actions and opinions, in certain cases leading to violence, than to create a library? A place of peaceful contemplation and the preservation of human knowledge, where an individual can in their own time and pace think and search for meaning.”
– Steven Mark Klein
This year, Elise By Olsen launched the International Library of Fashion Research in Oslo, Norway and celebrated her 10th anniversary of working in the fashion industry, something that wouldn’t stand out so much if it weren’t for the fact that she is only 23 years old.
Her career started when, aged 13, she founded the youth culture biannual magazine Recens Paper – a ‘by-kids-for-kids operation making room for new young voices to emerge and continue to define culture on their own terms’. At 16 she dropped out of school to focus on her work and just 2 years later she retired from Recens Paper feeling that she could no longer be the voice of ‘the young’ and wanting to avoid ‘exploiting youth culture’.
It is fair to say that Elise’s ambitions have always outweighed her prior experience, but that has never got in the way. Her clarity of vision, drive and willingness to step outside of her comfort zone have filled any gaps she may have encountered.
“I’m a firm believer in just learning as we go, and trial and error. Of course, quality is important, but learning by doing has been very important for me.”
– Elise By Olsen
Elise By Olsen and Steven Mark Klein. Photography: Ina Wesenberg for the National Museum; Akram Shah
Feeling the need for a critical filter that ‘created space for the written word’ and which questioned all aspects of the fashion industry – from publishing to advertising, technology, education, retail and beyond – at age 19 Elise turned her focus on academic fashion criticism and started her second magazine, Wallet.
This is how she first came to the attention of Steven Mark Klein, a New York brand consultant, fashion archivist and cultural theorist. He was intrigued and emailed out of the blue asking, ‘Who are you?’ Once becoming acquainted, the two found they shared a similar love-hate relationship with the fashion industry and its many contradictions, and a true bond was born. Steven – 49 years Elise’s elder – willingly took on the role of mentor, openly sharing his extensive knowledge as well as a very special collection of fashion-related printed matter that he had started in 1975.
The collection included fashion books and magazines as well as lookbooks, show invitations, illustrations and press releases by some of the industry’s most prominent brands. A large part of it consisted of ephemeral material that fashion houses produce for commercial purposes and which is generally disposed of at the end of a season. To Elise and Steven however, this content’s importance went beyond its intended use; to them the printed matter was a ‘cultural artefact with social, political, and economic dimensions’ that needed to be preserved. The question was: where?
After deciding on a library format, which would be run by Elise in Oslo, Steven gifted her his entire collection on the proviso she would be able to fund the transportation costs. And so it happened that, after raising close to $106,000 from the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York, the Norwegian cultural ministry and private individuals, on the 29th June 2020 – in the middle of a global pandemic – Steven Mark Klein’s collection left New York, Oslo bound.
“To preserve fashion’s past, understand its present and contribute to its future.”
– Elise By Olsen
Steven's collection arriving in Oslo. At KD Presse, Paris. At M/M Paris. Photography: Akram Shah; Einar Fuglem; Elise By Olsen
From this point on Elise was in charge and the International Library of Fashion Research (ILFR) was born. Her first partner was the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, who offered her financial support as well as a bricks & mortar space on its newly built campus, just round the corner from the Nobel Peace Center.
Next, Elise established an advisory board made up of leading industry voices whose clout and experience would help steer the library’s development across the years. These included Carmen; Akiko Fukai, director of the Kyoto Costume Institute; Isabella Burley, founder of Climax Book and former editor-in-chief at Dazed & Confused; Sarah Andelman, founder of consulting and curating company Just An Idea and founder and former creative director of colette; Shala Monroque, luxury creative consultant; and Terry Jones, founder of i-D, amongst many others.
Meanwhile, as word got out, interest grew around Elise’s mission to create both a digital database as well as a cultural institution where the local and international fashion community could gather to study, discuss and showcase fashion-related content. And on the 15th October 2020, the digital iteration of the ILFR – a free, globally accessible resource for fashion researchers, industry professionals and amateur enthusiasts – was launched to much acclaim.
The year that followed came with immense personal challenges; Elise was involved in a skiing accident that left her unable to work for months and Steven, who had been ill for some time, took his life. Events which would be enough to derail even the most solid of plans. Yet this year on the 29th November 2022 the International Library of Fashion Research opened its doors to the public.
As Elise told WWD in the run up to opening, “This was a project we started together. It was this cross-generational idea. Looking back after [Steven’s] passing, I understood that he felt that his work and research was completed, and he was passing on the baton. […] It’s beautiful to have his legacy here, to develop it and really honor him.”
Since Steven’s initial donation, global fashion houses, publishers and practitioners – including Hermès, Comme des Garçons, Dior, Helmut Lang and M/M (Paris) – have contributed material from their archives and Elise very much sees this as an evolving collection that will continue to grow over time.
“I’d much rather our material be in a library for everyone to see than locked up in our archive cupboard, that hardly anyone delves into”
– Adrian Joffe, CEO of Comme des Garçons
International Library of Fashion Research. Photography: Magnus Gullisken
As part of Elise’s plan to keep the ILFR’s archives alive and relevant, the library will host an ongoing series of talks and exhibitions, such as the 2-day Fashion Research Symposium that took place in September. The event gathered local and international students and industry professionals together in Oslo to discuss ways of ‘Decentralizing Fashion’, questioning how and if fashion can exist in smaller creative ecosystems outside of the established fashion capitals of Paris, Milan, London and New York.
To mark the ILFR’s physical opening, Elise and her collaborator Jeppe Ugelvig curated an exhibition dedicated to ‘The Art of the Press Release’ – which takes a look at how brands have used the written word to capture the essence of a collection and to translate a designer’s inspirations to press and consumers alike.
“Fashion has gradually become very prone to the language of conceptual art, at times over-explaining, over-conceptualising itself. Fashion language was previously a lot more experimental.”
– Elise By Olsen
The show features materials from 14 fashion practitioners – including Vivienne Westwood, Maison Martin Margela, Alessandro Michele, Mowalola and Virgil Abloh – and not only points to the shift in the medium’s distribution, following the arrival of PDFs and social media, but also to how changes in our culture have affected the way fashion is communicated.
For Immediate Release: The Art of the Press Release is on at the International Library of Fashion Research in Oslo until 1st March 2023.