TextileX Talk Esprit Flashback: Preserving the brand that defined the 1980s

Esprit Heritage Archive is the world’s largest collection of 1980s Esprit brand memorabilia that includes everything from corporate collateral, visual system guidelines, garments, accessories, product catalogs, packaging, photographs, audio, and video. This private collection has over 4,300 artifacts and continues to grow. Creative strategist Michelle Koza has spent over 30 years passionately preserving items from one of the most iconic fashion brands of the 1980s and officially launched the archive on Instagram (@espritflashback) in 2017.

In this talk, Michelle will present a short history of the Esprit brand in both its own time and its second life as an archival project. Throughout, she will share personal anecdotes that led her to the Esprit Heritage Archive and the work she has done to build the Archive as a space for community. As a part of this, Michelle and her team have launched the Esprit Oral History Project, in the aim of collectively rediscovering the soul of the collection and articulating the warm connections that people have to Esprit.

Michelle Koza comes to the world of archiving by way of her love for design. She has more than 20 years of professional experience working in the tech industry. In 2010 she left the corporate world to focus on a slow living lifestyle and portfolio careering. The effort has unexpectedly inspired various personal projects, most recently Esprit Flashback.

TextileX Talks

In an effort to continue to promote exchanges between the Portland textile community and beyond we’ve put together a series of TextileX Talks highlighting inspiring projects and voices addressing the theme of Regeneration. These talks feature innovative educators, artists, designers, and archivists whose work has inspired and will inform this year’s topic of Regeneration.