ARCHIVE.pdf

2026 marks the seventh year of ARCHIVE.pdf, and with that comes a moment of reflection. Since our founding, we have sought to cultivate a community of enthusiasts who deeply appreciate our mission of bridging fashion’s past and present. While we continue to approach fashion history with rigor and reverence, we also believe in the importance of the contemporary. Over the years we have grown our global team to include writers, archivists, curators, designers, and photographers who share the collective vision we have for ARCHIVE.pdf. As our team has grown, diversified, and become a springboard for internal talent, we are endlessly appreciative of everyone that has contributed along the way. As we enter this new year with plans to take our organization into new spaces, we are looking for members of our community to share their contributions to the fashion industry with us. If you would like to submit your work for publishing – an editorial you’ve photographed, a collection you’ve debuted, a film you’ve written or directed, a campaign you’ve styled – please email [email protected] and present your work in an organized, clear, and concise fashion. While we will review every submission we receive, we cannot guarantee responses or promises of publishing to all submissions. This will be an open call that we will post reminders of regularly. Thank you all again for your continued support, and we look forward to this new year.

ARCHIVE.pdf is excited to announce our new Substack series Material Wealth. For the biweekly newsletter, Editor-in-Chief @chrisziebert trawls the secondhand market across platforms, countries, and designers for deals and hidden gems, to get the clothes you see in our scans into your closet. The catalogue above shows some of the garments you might expect to see in the newsletter in the coming months. Click the link in bio to read the first issue, with a selection of garments including old Helmut Lang, Raf Simons’ tenure at Calvin Klein, underpriced Ann Demeulemeester, and more.

Kostas Murkudis: Post-Minimalism Extremes Before founding his own label in 1994, Kostas Murkudis quietly shaped the fashion of the 1990s as the right hand of Helmut Lang. Born to Greek parents in East Germany, Murkudis found himself surrounded by stifling gray, escaping through West Germany’s colors of club culture, music, and magazines. After a failed attempt at a chemistry degree, Murkudis enrolled at the Lette-Verein School of Fashion, during which a 1983 encounter with a Comme des Garcons’ runway redoubled his commitment to fashion. After working for the German designer Wolfgang Joop he joined Helmut Lang in 1985, amidst preparations for the brand’s first Paris runway show. There, he learned how to run a fashion label, assisting Lang in all dimensions of the fledgeling Austrian label. He served as Lang’s right hand for seven years, leaving the brand to focus on his family.  In 1994, Murkudis founded his eponymous label, debuting a womenswear line in 1996 and menswear in 1998. The press response was immediate: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw all these journalists waiting to see my show.” One can find a reaction against the gray of his childhood in Murkudis’ color palette; his stripped-back presentations always foregrounded the colors of the garments. Immediately his creative affinities with Lang were clear, in the sharp sculpture of his silhouettes, his material experiments, and his clothes’ unflinching sexuality — but Murkudis was far less restrained, finishing an ensemble of latex and chiffon with a lavish brocade, taking prints from photographs and Yves Klein, and detailing lingerie with leather stars or peacock feathers. Murkudis maintained the precision and craft of waning 1990s minimalism, but pushed it to aesthetic extremes.  In the early 2000s, Murkudis put his label on pause, and his collaboration with New York Industrie concluded in 2003. He has since worked intermittently, both showing independent collections and working with expert collaborators in other fields of design. His 1990s archive is housed at @endyma , and the 2000s archive at @stof.store .  Writer: @chrisziebert Visual Curator: @_paolamarti_

Y-3 Objects of Sport & Style “Y-3 has been born from the fusion of the seeming opposites of sport and style. Together with adidas we worked on forming something that didn’t exist and that would completely project the future.” - Yohji Yamamoto For all of the modes of dress that have evolved during the 21st century, the complete integration of athleticwear into clothing may be the most significant. The 20th century saw the invention of sportswear and its gradual growth into a dominant everyday style, but it wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that nearly everyone on the street was dressed to take up physical activity at any moment. As one of the leading voices in this new space, Y-3 has continued to explore the intersection between athleticwear and designer fashion.  “We live in a sports and body conscious age. Economy, records and competition– sport represents all these things. Fashion gets inspired by many things– army gear, work clothes, couture, music, hippies as well as sports. Fashion always relates to current influences.” These scans and more Y-3 historical objects will be on display at the KASURI x Y-3: Beautiful Things exhibition in Hudson, NY. The exhibition will be open from May 9th to July 9th at 549 Washington Street Hudson, NY 12534. Writer: @nashhill25 Visual Curator: @dampmagazines Scan Provider: @sanam

In the mid-80s, Martine Sitbon was one of the only designers that appreciated the fashion of the ’70s. The style of the decade was considered kitschy, cheap, and excessive. But for Sitbon, it was a time of vintage stores and mixing styles together while listening to the Velvet Underground and David Bowie. Of course now, the hard-edged punk aesthetics of the early-mid ’70s and the softer, beautified interpretations that came with the New Romantics at the end of the decade, are considered hallmarks of fashion, particularly of the ’90s. Yet it took a designer like Martine Sitbon, whose style of ‘alternative’ femininity was a complete refresher from that of the ’80s, to open the way for the ’90s to materialize as one of fashion’s greatest decades.  After some years of freelancing, Sitbon began designing under her own name in 1984. Her clothing stood in opposition to ’80s austerity; described as ‘gamine,’ there was a carefree sensuality and playfulness that distinguished Sitbon. Soon enough, just a few years into her own career, in 1988 she was tasked to redefine a free-falling Chloe brand that was still struggling to find itself after Karl Lagerfeld’s departure. While Sitbon’s Chloe was brief, it allowed her to position and develop her own label’s alternative sensibilities to that of a traditional luxury brand. Through the ’90s and into the ’00s, Sitbon developed a tribe of women that didn’t neatly fit into the boxes that fashion so often instinctively puts them in. Later, with Rue du Mail, Sitbon experimented with more intensive, couture-based techniques that lent her clothes with newfound sophistication.  The imagery of Sitbon’s brand was led by her long-time partner and art director, Marc Ascoli. Ascoli headed campaigns that included collaborations with rising talent like Nick Knight, Max Vadukul, Craig McDean, David Sims, Javier Vallonhrat, and other photographers that established much of the language of ’90s fashion imagery. These images also relied on distinctive models like Stella Tennant, Kirsten Owen, and Kristen McMenamy to define the multi-faceted woman that Sitbon designed for.  Writer: @nashhill25 Visual Curator: @k8thlynn

Damir Doma: 2008 - 2012 2007 saw the release of Damir Doma’s first presentation, S/S ‘08, under his eponymous label. The 16 look collection was a succinct offering from the Croatian born, Bavarian raised designer, who pared down menswear staples with a bohemian energy, taking design hints he’d gathered from his apprenticeships under Raf Simons and Dirk Schönberger. Slouchy trenchcoats had their buttons removed and were draped asymmetrically across the body, suits were unstructured and lost their lapels and buttons, and instead closed with a loose knot along the navel. Shirting was elongated and featured a scalloped hem, before ending with a pair of gladiator sandals wrapped atop the model’s slim cut trousers. Despite relaxed and airy material compositions and a carefree sensibility to styling, the palette was distinctly moody and desaturated. Doma’s following A/W ‘08 show was his runway debut, and subsequently extended the major ideas presented in the season prior. Layering grew more intricate, now with voluminous, swallowing shawls and jackets paired with double layered trousers and sheer shirting. Debuting this season was the bag scarf, which would see several iterations in following seasons.  A streetwear influence soon emerged through longline hoodies and bomber jackets. Both A/W ‘09 and A/W ‘10 saw Doma at his most focused. Speckled coats and contrasting noragis in egg shaped silhouettes were paired with wider cut trousers tucked into tall shafted boots. Models sported wrapped headpieces and skull caps, which would be further explored in S/S ‘11. New to the Doma design language was structured tailoring, with a handful of blazers featuring shoulder pads and Neapolitan gatherings. Meanwhile, Doma launched his womenswear line, as well as his diffusion label, Silent, which was a more affordable and minimalist offering as his mainline work expanded in scope. Alongside contemporaries such as Rick Owens, BBS, and Julius, Doma was a pivotal member of an aesthetic period long left behind. In the 2010s, his work shifted towards traditional menswear, calling back to his early time as an Antwerp apprentice.  Writer: @sethsherwoodjr Visual Curator: @tbfieulaine

Andre Leon Talley: The King of Vogue “Is fashion art? No. Fashion is hard work, gritty, it’s not glamorous,” decreed Andre Leon Talley after John Galliano’s famous S/S ‘94 collection.  Talley’s contributions to the fashion industry cannot be readily summarized; his guiding hand is felt so expansively that it is hard to find a sphere he has not touched. But among his most distinctive elements was his capacity to personally embody the stylistic values to which he held steadfast during his career. Talley’s lavish personal fashioning began before he even entered the industry, but flourished through his connections with designers. ALT wore clothes from the designers whose virtues he extolled, from John Galliano to Karl Lagerfeld to Yves Saint Laurent. He was, as @karlosteel put it, “the black dandy par excellence.” Andre Leon Talley’s most particular trick was his ability to make the glamour believable, at once untouchable and human. For Talley, beauty was a moral requirement, a daily obligation which presented the clothes from the glossy magazines he oversaw as a part of a life. It was a luxury rooted in his life with his grandmother, whose dignified order of her household introduced him to “not the luxury of surfeit and sumptuousness but the luxury of ordinary tasks done well and in a good frame of mind; of simple things suited to their purpose and well cared for.”  Since his tragic passing in 2022, ALT has been honored thoroughly, including at last year’s “Superfine” Met Costume Institute exhibition, which reified Talley in the same halls through which he entered the fashion industry. But his living presence has remained a glaring omission from its vision, celebrations, and from the industry at large.  Writer: @chrisziebert Visual Curator: @tbfieulaine

Mark Borthwick: Soft Focus Mark Borthwick is a photographer of intangibles. It’s often cliche to qualify one’s work with vagaries such as ‘mood’ or ‘feeling,’ but in his case, it feels necessary. The images are as much about what isn’t there, as what is; the absence of a clear motive, or lack of visual noise beyond the subject in view.  In some respect, it’s wholly inappropriate to categorize these images as ‘fashion photography.’ They feel more like fleeting moments where happenstance and chance dressed the model in Margiela— or Chalayan, or Maria Cornejo, even Demna’s debut collection at Balenciaga.  And the countless other such names that Borthwick has collaborated with since the late ’80s, after he shifted away from make-up. He came of age during the New Romantics aesthetic movement, which, more than anything, centered on the dissolution of categorical identities.  ‘Dissolution’ may point toward sufficient descriptors: soft focus and gentle lighting, even when sunlight colors the shot, imbues Borthwick’s work with a level of intimacy that evades much of contemporary fashion imagery. So many of the editorial shoots that make it to print are  poorly-dressed advertising, with products taking precedence over the human presence. Conversely, Borthwick’s photos have little concern with commercialism;  instead of trying to overtly sell product, they build a world that the brand can sit within.  With Borthwick, you can easily imagine the world that these clothes and these models—mostly women, including Chloe Sevigny and Stella Tenant as frequent subjects— inhabit. There is no segmentation between set and daily life in Borthwick’s photos. If you look closely, there are several series that take place in his old backyard in Brooklyn.  The sense of freedom and lack of constraint, the choice to relinquish control over outcomes that frame Borthwick’s approach, blend seamlessly with the designers and brands that he’s worked with. His work no doubt shapes the fondness with which we look back on those seminal designers from the nineties and early aughts.  Writer: @nashhill25 
Visual Curator: @_paolamarti_

Star Wars Couture  This series, shot by Irving Penn, showcases the costumes created by Trisha Biggar for Star Wars Episode I, “The Phantom Menace.”  For the costumes of Queen Padmé Amidala, played by Natalie Portman, Biggar gathered inspiration and references from myriad sources, especially drawing from the lush, soft shapes and detailing of Art Nouveau. The team worked on the costumes for this film for over a year, partly due to the massive concepting required to build out the style of an entire planet— those Art Nouveau details make their way across the court costume, military uniform, and civilian clothing.  Biggar employed couture techniques to create these dresses, working with a team of milliners, jewelers, dyers. Lace panels took months to create; a dress worn for the final parade used hand-painted petals of chiffon and organza, with a collar inspired by Japanese parasols; a pearl panel used for a headdress was originally a decorative panel sourced from a 1910 evening dress.  Writer: @nashhill25 Visual Curator: @dampmagazines

Zucca by Akira Onozuka  Akira Onozuka founded Zucca, or Cabane de Zucca, in 1988 and led the brand until 2011. Onozuka had worked as an assistant under Issey Miyake for over ten years before establishing his own brand, showing in Paris for the first time in 1989. By this point, Japanese designers had become much better known on the international stage— particularly in Paris— after the work of Miyake, Kenzo Takada, Hanae Mori, and later on the revolution of Kawakubo and Yamamoto.  But through the late ’80s, Japanese fashion still possessed this air of the ‘avant-garde.’ With Zucca, Onozuka pivoted and worked toward a more pragmatic vision, one that stretched across the sensibilities of Japanese and European— particularly French— fashion, no doubt picking up a thing or two from Miyake.  Onozuka was largely preoccupied with the uniform as a form of dress. Throughout his career, he’d explored this domain in several ways: designing the uniform for the Japanese service station employees of Esso Sekiyu; designing the ‘Armor-Lux par Zucca’ sub-label of the French brand built on Breton seafaring styles. Onozuka also established the HAKUI and Zucca Travail lines in 1992 and 1994, respectively, both rooted in blending workwear and civil uniform with sportswear.  But Zucca also maintained its playfulness, particularly through collaboration. Its watches were a hit, with pieces made of silicone straps and strange faces, with names like ‘Chewing Gum’ and ‘Chocolate,’ a few models using alligator, zebra, and giraffe patterns. Zucca also frequently collaborated with Seiko for more conventional models.  There have been two retrospective Zucca books published: the first covered the brand from 1988-1998; the second was a complete overview of Akira Onozuka’s time with the brand. These books include work from photographers like Mark Borthwick, Juergen Teller, and Paolo Roversi.  Writer: @nashhill25 Visual Curator: @offbrand.library Scan Provider: @dampmagazines

Marithé + François Girbaud in the 1980s At the end of the 1970s, the Parisian brand Marithé + François Girbaud was poised for expansion. During the preceding decade, the design duo had won the hearts of French youth with urban distressed-denim designs that introduced the Americana staple to the French market. François had found his inspiration in the 1960s working at the store Western House, a shop which stocked Western imports and was one of the few places to buy denim in Paris. The pre-washed denim designs which the brand produced over the course of the 1970s became an immediate hit among the youth, capturing the rebellious spirit of the decade and positioning the brand for international expansion.  At the beginning of the ‘80s, Girbaud debuted their distinctive X-pocket construction, with sagged pockets that broke the dominance of the traditional 5-pocket jean and suggested a relaxed, slouched posture. As power-dressed glamor came to define 1980s style, Girbaud positioned itself as an alternative to the decadence of bourgeois Parisian style. ‘’We are not against the establishment,’’ stated Mr. Girbaud. ‘’We just always knew that there was another way to look chic and sophisticated. And you don’t have to do it with a column of crepe.’’  Denim remained their core material, continuing to iterate on the stone-washing treatment the duo had invented in the 1960s. But denim was not the limit of their experimentation. The designers’ work with Italian leather manufacturer Ruffo led to the development of a tattooed leather in 1985, and they also worked with flawed and older hides to create a pre-worn look, while also debuting non-sport stretch fabrics. Their experiments extended to presentation: in 1987, the company contracted director Jean-Luc Godard to film a series of 20-second art-commercials for the sub-label CLOSED, providing an early iteration of the fashion film genre which has now become familiar. But even through its success in the ‘80s, Girbaud never lost its edge. As Mr. Girbaud says, “Fashion is nothing. If you say ‘I’m wearing  Girbaud’ you’re stupid. Elegance is not to wear a name.” Writer: @chrisziebert Visual Curator: @k8thlynn

Gomme A/W ‘98 Hiroshige Maki founded Gomme in 1989, following a decade-long tenure as senior patternmaker for Yohji Yamamoto’s Y’s line. The Bunka Fashion College graduate named the brand after the French word for “eraser,” to evoke the elasticity in how his pieces draped and changed shape. His work was inspired by space age couturiers from the ’60s, replacing the vinyls and plastics from the era with natural materials, silks with their shine removed for a matte-like effect, or coated in nylon to break down the fabric further for recutting. Maki’s work often took advantage of drawstring cinching and gathering to accentuate the figure. Maki’s work began at Tokyo Fashion Week, debuting in 1993, and eventually expanded to Paris through showroom exhibitions in 1995.  Among the most iconic of Maki’s work is Gomme’s A/W ‘98 show, which centered around explorations of tubular shapes. United under a single piece of music, the runway’s color palette was reduced to predominantly khakis and other neutrals to allow the patternmaking and material texture to take center stage. Notable to this show were the tube dresses, which were sleeveless and often had additional holes placed at the hip, back and buttocks to stretch against the body for new forms based on the wearer’s body type. Flannels, gauze-like cotton jersey, and felted poly-wool materials were stretched across diagonally cut sleeves to create tension and draping effects. Built upon from Maki’s previous works were the presence of drawstring cinches around the neckline and waist, which were now translated into the endings of tubes. This show preceded Maki’s debut in Paris Fashion week, which would occur the following year. Maki was found here at his most conceptual, critiquing the Japanese relationship with the physical form, which he felt was too restrained and homogenized, compared to the western influences he had absorbed while in Paris. Writer: @sethsherwoodjr Visual Curator: @_paolamarti_ Scans Provider: @dampmagazines