The “must-see museum” for fashion lovers in Florence, one of only a handful of fashion museums in Italy, the Museum of Costume and Fashion in Palazzo Pitti is back in all its splendour after almost five years of renovations and a partial reopening last winter, with a completely new look and 8 new exhibition halls.
The displays in the museum cover centuries in the history of costume and fashion, now no longer arranged by theme but in chronological order, from the eighteenth century to the present. The new exhibition includes the central core of the Gallery’s permanent collection, made up of about 60 garments and the same number of accessories, including shoes, bags, fans, umbrellas, gloves and hats.
The last section to reopen to the public was the area focusing on 18th and 19th century costumes, featuring 20 rare items representing all the luxury and ostentation of the day.
The outfits on display are exhibited alongside a number of artworks from the collection of the Uffizi Gallery dating back to the same time, representing the ties between art and fashion, as in the case of a suit by Federico Forquet, nicknamed “Italy’s Dior”, and a Valentino suit displayed alongside a work by Alberto Burri.
The items on exhibit also include a wonderful bridal gown made of ivory-coloured silk satin by Charles Frederick Worth, considered the inventor of haute couture, and a house dress by Jacques Doucet, shown alongside a sculpture made by Enrico Minerbi for Franca Florio, a leading figure in the Italy of the Belle Époque, a great icon of style and muse of poets, artists and writers.
A collection of true wonders, outfits representing the culture and aesthetic sense of their times, revealing distant stories and secrets.
