Voguepedia: The World of Fashion in Vogue

by Beautifully Invisible on July 21, 2011

What happens when you take the “knowledge-at-your-fingertips” approach of a wiki and combine it with the fashion bible known as Vogue?

You get Voguepedia!

Was I the only person who didn’t know about this??

At some point (apparently when I wasn’t paying attention) the geniuses at Vogue decided to create an online archive of fashion covering the magazine’s 119 year history.  I did some digging online and, according to Fashionista, the concept is still in its early stages.  It isn’t a true wiki, like wikipedia or wikifashion, because readers are unable to add information on their own, but its the closest thing I’ve ever seen to an online Encyclopedia of Fashion.

So, how is it different from wikipedia and wikifashion?  Let’s compare by looking up designer Roberto Cavalli on each.

Here are the results on wikipedia and wikifashion, respectively:

Roberto Cavalli search results (via Wikipedia and wikifashion)

As you can see, the wikipedia entry is very typical.  Because it is so heavily reliant on user-input, there is limited information available and absolutely no collection imagery is present.  Meanwhile, the wikifashion entry is a completely blank slate, waiting for someone to fill it out.

Now, let’s compare that to the information available through Voguepedia:

Roberto Cavalli search results via Voguepedia

Not only does the Voguepedia entry look great, more fashion-specific information is available on Voguepedia.  Collection imagery.  Appearances.  History.  Reliable sources (which can be tricky with wikipedia).  Did I mention collection imagery?

Now, Voguepedia is far from perfect.   The concept is still in its infancy so available data/information is still limited.

For instance:

TOM FORD is absent from the designer and brand pages.

Same is true for Gucci.

Although they do both appear in standard Voguepedia search results, wikipedia certainly has more info available. For now.

But the future looks good.

So…

Were you aware of Voguepedia?

Have you used it?

What are your thoughts?

 

{ 24 comments… add one }

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  • wikigirl August 3, 2011, 9:01 PM

    I’m actually the co-founder of Wikifashion 🙂 Thanks for the mention! Like you said we rely on the help of the community. Unlike Voguepedia I don’t have a team of editorial staff helping to fill in pages (or resources to acquire one), unfortunately it’s just me and a few editors who come along once in a while. We’d love to have more content and it’s up to the fashion community to help out with this 🙂

    Reply

  • Kimmiepooh July 28, 2011, 7:22 PM

    This is my first time hearing about this. I will definitely check it out…

    Reply

  • Jamillah July 25, 2011, 12:03 AM

    New to me!!! I love the page layout of Cavali, it looks super smart and modern. Thanks so much for sharing, B. P.S-I miss you!!!

    Reply

  • Casee Marie July 24, 2011, 9:38 PM

    I did not know about this! I love wikifashion but always wished there was more info available. This looks so right up my alley. Lately I’ve been wanting to buy a dictionary or encyclopedia of fashion, something that can help me educate myself a bit more on the industry and history of fashion as a whole. This will be a great tool in the process, I think. So glad you posted about it!

    Reply

  • Fashnlvr July 24, 2011, 8:54 PM

    I did not know about Voguepedia but the beginning is promising. I checked for my favorite designer (Balmain) and inofrmation is limited at the moment but it still looks like a great site.

    Reply

  • Kristin July 22, 2011, 9:40 PM

    It’s new to me, but I’m definitely intrigued!

    Reply

  • WendyB July 22, 2011, 12:18 PM

    First I’ve heard of it! I’ll have to take a look.

    Reply

  • No Guilt Fashion July 22, 2011, 10:09 AM

    I hadn’t hear of this yet, but now I know what I’ll be doing my next time I’m looking for something to do.

    Reply

  • Anna July 22, 2011, 2:20 AM

    ah! I found out about it a while ago and the first thing I searched was Tom Ford 😛 to be honest I didn’t search other terms, but if they are really serious about it, I gather that hey’ll do a good job! Wikipedia is always my go-to option but for fashion it isn’t very up to date!

    Reply

  • vanessa July 21, 2011, 9:23 PM

    I had no idea that it existed. It seems awesome, and full of a lot of great information.

    Reply

  • Terri July 21, 2011, 7:51 PM

    I was not aware of this. Many thanks for the tip! Sounds like a great resource.

    Reply

  • Cate July 21, 2011, 6:30 PM

    i hadn’t heard of it, but it kind of sounds like the most amazing thing ever. it might even be good that it’s not complete yet since i tend to get lost to “wiki syndrome”.

    Reply

  • LaCara July 21, 2011, 6:05 PM

    That is so cool, I can’t wait for it to grow and develop! Looks like this will be my new hobby! Thanks for the tip, beautiful B! 😀

    Reply

  • Jenmarie July 21, 2011, 5:38 PM

    I wasn’t aware of Voguepedia either! I love the idea and appreciate that not just anyone can add information. That option has always irked me so! I’ll definitely be checking it out.

    Reply

  • Marissa July 21, 2011, 4:23 PM

    I had absolutely no idea about this. Oh no – this is going to be a huge time suck, isn’t it? Well, so much for getting any more work done today. 😉

    Reply

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