Wunderkind Olson reveals her library in Oslo for fashion magazines

At 22, Elise By Olsen has spent most of her life refusing to be ignored by what she calls the “legitimate” world of fashion.

At the age of 8, she started a style and culture blog; at the age of 13, she became one of the world’s youngest editors-in-chief when she founded, published and edited Recens, a stylish under-18 magazine. (“It was unheard of for young people to participate in the cultural conversation or the fashion industry,” she says.) Later, she launched Wallet, a fashion industry magazine with what WWD described as a “sharp pen , critic”.

The wunderkind from the suburbs of Oslo has worked as a cultural and brand consultant and at the age of 17 joined a creative residency at Google in Paris at the invitation of Hans Ulrich Obrist, the curator and art critic. Her early magazines, she says, were born out of frustration: “Fashion people hold their positions, even though they may not be as important as they think they are.”

Now, Olsen is embarking on her most ambitious project yet, as founding director of the International Fashion Research Library.

What is billed as “the world’s most comprehensive repository of specialist fashion research and contemporary fashion publications” is an extraordinary trove of printed ephemera – two tonnes of magazines, books, show invitations, catalogs and so on, that date from the mid-1970s to the present. Opening in October, it will be free and open to all.

Her home will be the former Oslo West railway station (Olsen and her team share the grand Italianate building with the Nobel Peace Center, among others) and across the courtyard from her collaborators and supporters, the newly opened National Museum of Norway. Olsen worked closely with Hanne Eide, the museum’s curator of fashion and clothing, to launch the project. “We have a common mission,” says Eide.

Olsen, who is slight with bleached-white hair and delicately tattooed wrists, shows me around the premises, navigating builders and engineers as they scramble. When completed, there will be two floors: one for exhibits, the other for shelving and study.

How would Olsen describe the library? “As a neutral space for fashion discourse – that’s my mission,” she says. “The archives will all be on the bookshelves. It will look like a physical study room, there will be a large desk where you can use the on-site archive, printing and scanning equipment. . . “

But there will be no clothing, because the purpose of the library is not to study fashion, but how it is mediated. “We will take off the suits and look only at processes and methods. No dummies, no mannequins.”

Walking around the bright, white-walled premises in a minimal black ensemble and futuristic turquoise high-heeled boots, Olsen is surprisingly confident. She speaks in quick paragraphs delivered in fluent English without hesitation – an accent that is part Scandi, part New York, part south London.

A stack of taped cardboard boxes with labels such as “YVES S LAURENT — CHLOE — LANVIN — GIVENCHY” and “BALENCIAGA” holds some of the collection, most of which was given to OIsen by Steven Mark Klein, the American cultural theorist and her mentor. who died last year at the age of 70. What makes Klein’s collection worth keeping?

“Because promotional material has always been available, and it’s been thrown away and used only for marketing and sales,” Olsen says. “Each of these publications is not necessarily that valuable, but as a whole it is incredibly valuable. . . for students, researchers, entrepreneurs. . . anyone who needs to understand the history of fashion.”

“I don’t think it’s ever been seen in such a range before, because people in the intellectual discourse of fashion tend to shy away from advertising, advertising.”

Klein’s large gift was sent from his apartment on East Broadway in Manhattan to Oslo in 2020, when the project was first conceived. More have been added as word has spread. Olsen overlooks another neat box: “This is part of a donation we received from Comme des Garçons: email correspondence, catalogs, look books.”

I was his student and he was my teacher and it was a monologue

Klein – known as Steve Oklyn – was a provocateur and a cult figure on the American fashion scene. A former graphic designer and branding consultant, Klein was immersed in and positioned outside of New York’s visual arts scene, and fashion in particular.

Under his pseudonym Oklyn (“his trolling persona,” Olsen notes, approvingly) Klein oversaw Not Vogue, a longtime satirical fashion blog that sought out the industry’s most inflated excesses. He was also an obsessive collector—even a borderline hoarder—of fashion ephemera.

Olsen and Klein met when Klein noticed press coverage about Olsen’s self-publishing empire and contacted him via email in 2015. And “from that point on he bombarded me with links — every reference to culture, music, art, and it was like 20 relationships a day.”

Klein was done with his collection when he gave it to her: “He said, ‘I’ve done my research, I’m done with this material, and people should be able to use it.’ “

Olsen used to visit him regularly in New York and misses him as the library nears its opening date. “I was his student and he was my teacher and he was a monologue. I was taking notes and really listening to it. I had such respect for him.”

Now, Olsen is focused on continuing his work. As part of the library’s partnership with the museum, there will be exhibitions, editorial work, a symposium and collaborations with leading fashion schools including Central Saint Martins in London and Parsons School of Design in New York. Olsen would eventually like to establish a PhD research residency.

Her generation is often assumed to ignore the press. Olsen clearly likes her, but why? “It’s brave. It’s on the newsstand and shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s more legitimate and it’s this antidote to the online media cycle.”

Can she do Anna Wintour’s job in 15 years?

“Ummm. . . ” There is an uncharacteristic pause before her answer arrives.

“So I don’t believe in monthly magazines. We need to slow down. It is not sustainable to print 500,000 copies of an issue every month and send it to global distribution and so on. Magazines need to be completely transformed.”

“But commercial publishing is interesting. It’s declining in sales, reach and influence – and that means it could have an amazing resurgence.”

She then adds, “But there’s definitely something about taking something that’s dying as a concept and doing it in a new way, for a new audience.

“Like a library.”

International Fashion Research Library opens in Oslo in October

Be the first to know about our latest stories — follow @financialtimesfashion on Instagram