How to License Archive Prints for Fashion Home and Interior Design
- Cheryl O’Meara
- May 11
- 3 min read
Looking for unique, authentic surface design to elevate your brand? Licensing archive prints is a powerful way to bring timeless beauty into modern collections - especially across fashion, interiors, and lifestyle products. Whether you're a US-based design studio, fashion house, or home decor brand, accessing historical prints through licensing offers a fresh alternative to in-house creation, while saving time and ensuring originality.
Here’s how to license archive prints and why it can transform your next collection.
What Is Print Licensing?
Print licensing gives you legal rights to use a design or pattern on your product for a defined purpose, region, and time. Rather than buying a print outright, licensing allows you to choose a design, negotiate terms, and use it within an agreed scope. It’s cost-effective, flexible, and increasingly popular with fashion and interior designers seeking exclusive or limited-edition prints.
Why Choose Archive Prints?
Archive prints come from historical textile, wallpaper, and surface design collections. These designs, often hand-drawn, painted, or printed in centuries past, offer a level of richness, detail, and authenticity that's hard to replicate. Many are out-of-print, one-of-a-kind artworks, making them perfect for boutique fashion brands, luxury homeware, and heritage-inspired product lines.
At Print Pattern Archive, we digitize and curate high-resolution scans of rare vintage prints, offering licensing opportunities that blend history with contemporary relevance.
How Licensing Archive Prints Works
Browse a Curated Archive Collection
Many modern archives, like ours, offer online zoom access to textile design libraries, making it easy to select from a personalised curated collection. We also offer moodboards & mapped images with suggestions that are on brand.
Select Your Licensing Type
Choose from:
Exclusive licenses (only your brand can use the design)
Non-exclusive licenses (shared usage with other clients)
Buyouts (rare, full ownership options)
Customise and Digitise Your Chosen Print
Want a vintage floral in your brand palette or a historic repeat adapted for modern production? Our Customise and Digitise package offers:
Color changes to match your collection
Seamless repeat creation for print production
Scale adjustments and layout variations
Clean-up of aged or fragile artworksThis service ensures your licensed print is production-ready, uniquely yours, and aligned with your creative vision.
Negotiate Terms
We tailor licenses based on:
Region (e.g. USA-only)
Industry (e.g. fashion licensing or home decor)
Duration (e.g.12 months)
Product categories (e.g. cushions, wallpaper, apparel)
Receive High-Resolution Files
Once approved, you’ll get professionally scanned, print-ready artwork files, often in layered or editable formats.
Launch with Confidence
Using licensed archive prints adds depth and story to your product line, backed by a clear license agreement and heritage narrative that today’s consumers love.
Archive - digitise and customise means you can scale, tweak colour and layout & see mapped designs to help you visualise the final product..
Why US Designers Are Turning to UK-Based Archives
Designers across the United States are seeking unique prints for fabric licensing, often turning to British archives for their depth of history and impeccable curation. With fast digital delivery, clear international licensing terms, and personal support, it's never been easier to access timeless designs for commercial use.
Ready to License Archive Prints?
Explore our curated library at Print Pattern Archive and contact us to discuss how our archive and Customise and Digitise service can bring soul, style, and story to your next collection.
Commentaires