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Swiss Textile Collection Brings Textile History to Life, One Item at a Time

The association for Swiss textile history needed a system to manage individual items in their collection

Organisations in Axiell’s community of users vary from the massive to the modest. The Swiss Textile Collection comes in at the more diminutive end of the scale, with only 2500 items in their collection. The collection features pieces of couture – from robes and ensembles to costumes, children’s clothing and shoes. All pieces are manufactured from Swiss materials and most date between 1940 and 1995.

The Swiss Textile Collection have a clear focus on individual items, where it’s the detail that counts. It is for this reason that the customer moved away from a free solution to Axiell’s Adlib Collections Management System, a system which allows them to record the specific details of every individual object in the collection.

What information does the Swiss Textile Collection manage?

“Our goal is to capture the clothing of a person from head to toe and depict the history of what has been worn in Switzerland. This includes details on: manufacturer, style, design, fabric and whether it is summer or winter-wear. In order to process these details, we needed a solution that would allow us to create separate records and categorise them depending upon the contents of these very individual items,” explains Rosmarie Amacher, President of the Swiss Textile Collection.

Why did the charitable association choose Axiell?

After a thorough search for the right solution, the organisation chose Axiell’s Adlib Collections Management System.

“We initially used a free solution that did not meet our requirements. Axiell Adlib, however, allows us to work in a way that suits us, as we can customise our system for our specialised fields and data. Now we can search by term, time period or source to provide all available information and images,” continues Rosmarie Amacher.

What makes the work of the Swiss Textile Collection so special?

Not only does the collection provide a tangible textile history, it also provides information on specific styles or fabric manufacturers. For example, the Swiss Textile Collection can be used for research purposes or can quickly provide museums with information on loans. Research purposes vary but could include researching costumes for film and television.

The cornerstone of the collection is an estate of around 1,800 couture pieces owned by Eva Margarita Hatschek, who was the wife of a Swiss billionaire. The collection is constantly growing with new objects and new exhibits, whilst items are also gradually being digitised.

Find out more about the collection here

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