TFC: Bridging academic and popular understandings of fashion history through research, exhibitions and programming.

The Texas Fashion Collection in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas is a unique repository documenting high fashion and style with nearly 20,000 garments and accessories. One of the most acclaimed educational resources at the university, the TFC inspires students, researchers and community visitors.

Originally started by the Dallas-based retailer Neiman Marcus in the late 1930s, the collection transferred to UNT in 1972 to support design research. Since then, holdings have grown tenfold. About 90 percent of the collection, which was featured in the Denton County Magazine, is from individual donors, most with connections to North Texas. Texas Monthly notes the TFC’s important connections to the creative output of the state, while D Magazine's November 2019 cover story describes the TFC as “a trove of designer labels including 387 designs by Hubert Givenchy, 301 by Oscar de la Renta, 151 from the House of Dior and an impressive 340 by Cristóbal Balenciaga.” 

Discover more about the collection by attending our on-campus events and off-site exhibitions. You can also explore from home, with access to over 11,000 records and more than 77,000 images of TFC holdings available through the Texas Fashion Collection section of the UNT Digital Library.


The University of North Texas, Texas Fashion Collection is one of the largest university-based historic fashion archives in the United States. It preserves and documents historically significant clothing, accessories, and textiles for research, teaching and exhibitions. Check out WFAA-TV's behind-the-scenes look, "Threads of Time: Exploring the Texas Fashion Collection!"

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