European Fashion Heritage Association

The European Fashion Heritage Association brings together more than forty-five institutions from fourteen European countries.. creating the largest fashion heritage network in the world.

The European Fashion Heritage Association was established in 2014 following a project co-funded by the European Commission, in which both public and private archives and museums across Europe collaborated and shared online the rich heritage of their historical clothing and accessories, contemporary designs, catwalk photographs, drawings, sketches, magazines, catalogues and videos.

Since then, the Association has grown attracting more than 45 European fashion institutions, from small private museums to large national institutions, coming from 14 European countries, united in the objective to unlock and give free access to the unique fashion heritage of Europe. 

Today the association has become an international hub, in which fashion galleries, libraries, archives, museums, fashion brands, researchers and creatives can share their experiences and practices in the field of digitisation, co-creation and valorisation of fashion heritage resources, contributing to the digital transformation in the sector and supporting the preservation of tangible and intangible heritage in the field of textile and fashion.

The Association operates also in the broader landscape of the European digital cultural heritage, contributing as the fashion thematic aggregator to Europeana, Europe's platform for cultural heritage funded by the European Commission that brings together and gives access to millions of digital heritage objects coming from cultural institutions all across Europe, and it is also an active member of Culture Action Europe and of the European Heritage Alliance, and is an official partner of the New European Bauhaus.

To help fashion galleries, libraries, archives, museums and brands to get better value from their cultural heritage assets by opening them up and connecting with new audiences.

Uncovering and sharing the vast wealth of fashion heritage assets stored in public and private museums and archives across Europe will empower fashion institutions, increasing their visibility and connecting them with new audiences, allowing, at the same time, the full valorisation of the shared fashion heritage for work, for research and for passion, fostering a more inclusive, diverse and creative society and supporting the preservation and valorisation of craftsmanship and the related intangible heritage in the field of textile and fashion, which hopefully can inspire and foster a more sustainable and ethical future for the industry.

The association has created a lively growing network of fashion heritage institutions and built the largest and richest digital fashion heritage repository. These are its core assets that it must nurture and valorise. Since 2014 it has gathered and engaged a network of over forty-five fashion heritage institutions, professionals, scholars and enthusiasts.