It’s Nice That turns us onto the NMCA’s (National Magazines Cover Archives) online archive of seminal magazine covers. At it’s most base, it’s essentially just a place to look at pretty covers, but it’s also a great resource for anyone who needs reminding how great magazines can be. Amongst the magazines featured are French Vogue, Japan Dazed & Confused, i-D, Esquire and Tokion amongst others. Waste away an afternoon at NMCA’s website.

Studying American decorative arts as a graduate student introduced me to the wonderful world of archives. In that sphere, inventory records and account books reveal a wealth of information about pricing structures and client bases. Fashion, too, provides a similar opportunity to dig into company histories through archival records. The surge of heritage based lines opening the potential of proper historic digging in creating new products.

Chris Olberding has the enviable position of working with the Gitman archives. Not surprisingly, this material forms the basis for Gitman Vintage. Given my interests, it should also not surprise that I wanted to pick Olberding’s brain about the riches of Gitman. What follows is a discussion about how the archive informs his work and inspires his own interest in the garment trade.

Oki-ni is opening up their private stash to bring you the first of what will become many retrospectives looking historically at collection from a slew of designers. First up is the Raf Simons Archive “Raf Simons provides our first archive installment with pieces spanning from his initial mid 90s collections to present day. You’ll find key pieces throughout as well as a real insight into what we feel were his most important collections. These garments are from a personal collection, as time goes on the product matures in style and tastes and preference change.”

More views from Oki-ni’s Raf Simons Archive showcase after the jump.

We had chance to take a good look at the Lee “Archive” Denim Collection that will be showing up in Europe this coming Fall. It’s a legacy move from the Lee Company who have finally gotten around to digging into their vaults to re-construct classic cuts from their heritage. The Archive Collection from Lee is interesting on a number of level but the standout is their desire to remain true to the original cuts. Some may find them not as modern as the re-issue of their 101 Collection (more on that later in the week), but for denim purists, you’ll be able to pick up the originals – made in Japan and washed in Japan.

More views of denim from the Lee Archives after the jump.