Conservation at the Kyoto Costume Institute

Abstract

The Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI) was founded in 1978 by Wacoal Corporation as an international fashion research institute based in Kyoto. KCI aims to systematically collect, preserve, research, and display western-style clothes dated from 17th century to Today. The collection currently ranges 13,000 items of clothing and 16,000 documents. In this article, I would like to introduce part of KCI's activity with some examples of preventive conservation method, and share some problems of conservation especially for contemporary fashion items such as including synthetic fabric, complicated shapes or mixed materials.