Wikidata:WikiProject Fashion/Taxonomy/Recommendation

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Author: PKM (talk)

As part of this WikiProject, I have researched a number of approaches to the taxonomy for fashion and clothing options. This is my recommendation for adopting a set of open standards in this area.

Proposal

I propose that, assuming consensus, Wikidata:WikiProject Fashion should:

Incorporate the Europeana Fashion Vocabulary (EPV), the structured vocabulary in 10 languages associated with the Europeana Fashion Thesaurus v1 (Q28890038)PDF, as a preferred authority for clothing and fashion items.
Use EPV alongside the relevant subhierarchies of the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (Q611299) online, which has already been incorporated into Wikidata.
Fall back to the ICOM Vocabulary of Basic Terms for Cataloguing Costume (Q18325477) online, with its visual guidelines, primarily for classifying items of clothing as <subclass of> when the items are not in EFV or AAT.

Steps to implement this recommendation include:

Define and propose a new property EPV ID (Europeana Fashion Vocabulary ID)
Import the four EPV datasets:
- Types (of garments)
- Materials
- Subjects (genres of clothing)
- Techniques
Use a bot to assign EPV IDs where the related AAT ID has been mapped in WD.
Use a bot to insert missing labels in the 11 EPV languages where an EPV ID can be assigned

Background

Based on my research, I think these vocabularies will be most useful to this Project:

ICOM vocabulary (ICOM)
- Developed by the COSTUME group of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), 1982
- Advantages:
  - Minimally multilingual (English, French, German)
  - Has clear written and pictorial definitions for assigning categories to any newly-encountered object.
- Disadvantages:
  - Top level of hierarchy is Women's Clothing, Men's Clothing, Children's Clothing; this does not match most of what's in Wikidata.
  - Some of the categories (e.g. 2-piece dresses vs. 3-piece dresses) don't match what's in Wikidata.
Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
- Developed by Getty Research Institute, released online 2014
- Relevant hierarchies:
  - Costume
  - Costume components
  - Fashion
  - Textile materials
  - Dress (Cultural concept, appropriate dress for an occasion)
  - Footwear (Shoes by form)
- Advantages:
  - Already in Wikidata and available through the Mix'n'Match tool.
  - Minimally multilingual (English, Dutch, German, Spanish, some Chinese).
Europeana Fashion Thesaurus (EFT) and related Europeana Fashion Vocabulary (EFV)
- Developed by Europeana Fashion (2012-2015), a Wikimedia GLAM partner
- Advantages:
  - Translations into 10 languages (English, Dutch, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Greek, Swedish and Serbian)
  - Based on and expands the AAT, especially in the areas of materials and techniques.
  - Direct mapping to AAT IDs where those exist.
Modemuze
- A project by twelve Dutch museums to permanently present their fashion collections online. Includes development of an extended vocabulary based on Getty ATT with reference to the ICOM vocabulary, in partnership with Europeana Fashion. A goal is to release their vocabulary as Linked Open Data (LOD) (not yet available).

More discussion on these vocabularies can be found on the Taxonmy tab.

Best practices

As part of this proposal, I suggest that the project should adopt these guidelines as best practices.

Classification of items using subclass of (P279) should be sourced to AAT, EFV, or a reputable reference text where possible, or any combination of these.

coif (Q15978441): historical headgear, a close-fitting cap <subclass of> cap (Q6147804) reference: <stated in> Art & Architecture Thesaurus (Q611299)

Classification hierarchies may disagree; where this occurs, multiple entries with their sources are preferred.

stomacher (Q1615371): decorative panel to fill in the front opening of a dress or bodice <subclass of> 
 costume component (Q28935403) reference: <stated in> Europeana Fashion Thesaurus v1 (Q28890038)
 costume accessory (Q1065579) reference: <stated in> Art & Architecture Thesaurus (Q611299)

Comments

Please comment on this proposal here.

Comment As I continue to work with these vocabularies, I have these observations:
- AAT is much richer on historical garments too old to have survived in museum collections.
- EFV is richer on modern garments, especially footwear, and on aspects of the fashion industry like fashion events.
- No vocabulary is as capable of drawing fine distinctions between garments as enthusiastic Wikipedia editors, whose work can be incorporated as subclasses of items in EFV and AAT in most cases. - PKM (talk)
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