Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Nielson, Layne and Nielson, Layne
- Abstract:
- Layne Nielson is a fashion and graphic designer who designed fashion accessories and stationery for Rudi Gernreich and for his own label. The collection includes fashion samples and accessories, as well as sketches, publicity, stationery, examples of Nielson's design work in advertising, photographs, publications, and documentation of exhibitions.
- Extent:
- 16.2 linear feet (14 boxes, 1 carton, 6 flat boxes, and 8 oversize flat boxes), 6 video recordings (6 unprocessed VHS tapes), 1 sound recordings (1 unprocessed 12 inch 45 rpm record), and 6 linear feet (3 unprocessed outfits)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Layne Nielson papers (Collection 2236). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of material related to the career of designer Layne Nielson. Included are fashion design samples and accessories, sketches, correspondence, publicity, photographs, assorted graphic designs samples, exhibition ephemera, photographs, and publications. Additionally, there is a small amount of material documenting Nielson's childhood. Some boxes may contain autobiographical narratives written by Nielson to provide context to items in the collection. The materials date from 1938 to 2002.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Designer Layne Nielson is known for his work designing fashion accessories and stationery for Rudi Gernreich. Nielson's work reflects a wide range of design, including: graphics, product design, textiles, exhibition design, and interior design.
Nielson was born in Monroe, Utah on March 3, 1938. As a college student, Nielson moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and worked in the UCLA Library, where he befriended Paul Lenk, a cousin of Gernreich's. Lenk introduced Nielson to Gernreich, who offered him work if Nielson would learn to design hats. This began a long relationship between Nielson and Gernreich. Nielson worked both as a freelance designer and as an Assistant Designer to Gernreich at various times between 1959-1985. The foremost expert on Gernreich, Nielson lectures on Gernreich, has extensive involvement with exhibitions on Gernreich, and began a biography of Gernreich in 1996.
Nielson's other commercial design work includes stationery design, advertising, and other graphic design. Nielson designed variously as Layne Nielson Design Company, Nielson Design Company, and Dynasty Collection. He also worked for Hoffman California Woolens, Wilson/Levin/Kirk, Western Costume Company, Max Factor and Company, Redken laboratories, EGR Travel, and others, and opened the Layne Nielson/ Selective Eye art gallery.
Source: Nielson's Curriculum Vitae and his autobiographical narrative accounts, Box 26, Folder 1, Layne Nielson papers (Collection 2236). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Layne Nielson, 2014.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Rebecca Bucher, under the supervision of Megan Hahn Fraser, 2017.
Rebrecca Bucher and Octavio Olvera rehoused scarves and other materials for preservation purposes.
Layne Nielson arranged and inventoried the collection. Nielson also wrote descriptions and contextual biographical notes for each container.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Fashion accessories, design, and show production, 1960-2002
- Series 2: Graphic design, 1960-1999
- Series 3: Photographs, 1939-1990
- Series 4: Juvenilia and memorabilia, 1938-1999
- Physical / technical requirements:
-
CONTAINS UNPROCESSED AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Layne Nielson papers (Collection 2236). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988