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Colonial chic, jazz age fashion: It's all in Fraser's archive

IT is a history spanning more than a century, offering snapshots of what the well-heeled lady was wearing in the 1920s, the must-have appliances for the 1950s' housewife and the intricacies of pulling together a late 19th-century colonial wardrobe for the perfect expat lifestyle.

RETAIL EMPIRE: A 1937 shot, top left, of Wylie & Lochhead's store on Buchanan Street, now Frasers; a boy wonders at the shop's 2008 Christmas display; assistant archivist Clare Paterson; shoppers, above, in 1959; fashion, right, 1920s' style.
RETAIL EMPIRE: A 1937 shot, top left, of Wylie & Lochhead's store on Buchanan Street, now Frasers; a boy wonders at the shop's 2008 Christmas display; assistant archivist Clare Paterson; shoppers, above, in 1959; fashion, right, 1920s' style.
Custom byline text: 
Susan Swarbrick

The official archive of House of Fraser will go online for the first time on Christmas Day, bringing to life a rich and colourful retail heritage.

Dating back to the mid-19th century, the extensive collection managed by Glasgow University comprises 132 metres of records and contains 10,000 items.