Twice a year Fashion Week takes over the most famous fashion capitals around the globe but you can dive in the stunning fashion world all year-round at the world’s best fashion-focused museums. These temples of couture are home to rare creations designed by some of the biggest names in the fashion industry, located in some of the most beautiful cities in the world. Take your GYLLIUM agenda and plan your one-of-a kind fashion trip during 2018.
Christian Dior‘s childhood home stands on the cliff facing the Channel Islands in Granville, Normandy. In 1997, the villa became the “Christian Dior Museum,” unique “Musée de France” labeled museum dedicated to a couturier. The Christian Dior Museum in Granville is joining the commemorations, offering a unique perspective on the Granville origins of the style created by Dior, who was born in Granville in 1905. The family home played a key role in the designer’s sources of inspiration. Christian Dior spent his childhood in the Les Rhumbs villa under the protective and loving eye of his mother Madeleine.
This museum dedicated to the inventor of the wedge and the cage heel Salvatore Ferragamo, opened on May 1995 in Florence, Italy. The designer became “shoemaker to the stars” in the 1920s after opening a shop in Hollywood. With rotating exhibitions like “Marilyn” and an impressively displayed permanent collection of Ferragamo’s iconic footwear, this museum is a must-see for the casual and footwear-obsessed fashion lovers. Ferragamo personally designed 40 shoes for the the everlasting icon Marilyn Monroe, whom he compared to Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty.
The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York
The Costume Institute at the world-famous Met houses will reveal to its visitors more than 35,000 costumes and
accessories. The museum represents five continents of fashionable dress and includes clothing from the 15th century to the present.
‘Sex and the City’ star
Sarah Jessica Parker narrates the museum’s audio guide, “Costume: The Art of Dress,” which highlights the cultural significance of fashion throughout the ages. The institute stages at least one special exhibition each year, with recent ones including 2004’s “Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century;” 2006’s “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion” and 2010’s “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.”
Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology is the only museum in New York City dedicated solely to the art of fashion. The Fashion Institute itself has given the world fashion stars like Nanette Lepore,
Reem Acra, and both halves of Sigerson Morrison. Its museum, one of the few in New York City that are free to visit, hosts rotating exhibits that pull from the school’s impressive
collection of one-of-a-kind pieces from designers like
Chanel,
Halston,
Alaia, and
Balenciaga. Recent highlights have included a roundup of lingerie through the years and a show about counterfeiting. And, because this is the style capital of America, the crowd is usually as beautifully dressed as the mannequins.
Founded in the late 1960s, it is visited by 100,000 people each year. With a permanent collection of 50,000 garments and accessories from the 18th century to the present, the Museum at FIT places an emphasis on “aesthetically and historically significant ‘directional’ clothing, with an eye toward contemporary avant-garde fashion.
Gucci Museum
Florence might be best known for its spectacular Renaissance art, but the Gucci Museum sprang onto the scene in 2011 showcasing creations of an altogether more modern era.
The museum, situated in Florence, tells the story of the Italian fashion and leather goods manufacturer, from its early start in the city of Florence to the global biggest-selling Italian brand that it is today.
Gucci was founded in 1921 in Florence by Guccio Gucci, who had worked in Paris and London hotels and had been impressed by the luxurious luggage of the guests. When he returned to Florence Gucci and three of his sons started their own workshop, which soon led to the first Gucci shops being opened in Milan and Rome. The start of a global fashion and accessories empire.
Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum
The museum bearing Cristóbal Balenciaga‘s name opened in 2011, perched on a hillside in the Basque fishing village of Getaria, Spain where the designer was born in 1895. Balenciaga was a true fashion innovator. He was respected (and is still today) throughout the fashion world for both his techniques and construction as well as his perfectionism.
The museum is housed in two separate buildings that are connected. One is a large modern building and the other is the Aldamar Palace, where Balenciaga spent much of his childhood since his mother worked as a tailor for the owners of the palace, the marquises Casa Torre. This is where Balenciaga first came into contact with haute couture and it is quite fitting that the palace is now part of the museum where you can enjoy the legacy of a fashion genius!
Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent
The relationship between the late designer Yves St Laurent and his longtime life and business partner (Saint Laurent and Bergé spent 28 years working at this address, from 1974 to 2002, when the designer retired), Pierre Bergé, was chronicled in the film L’Amour Fou (Crazy Love). The foundation started in 2002, when St Laurent announced his retirement, with the stated goal to “conserve the 5,000 Haute Couture garments and 15,000 Haute Couture accessories as well as more than 50,000 drawings and assorted objects that bear witness to 40 years of Yves Saint Laurent‘s creativity.” Needless to say, there are a lot of exhibits of St Laurent’s work, but the space also shows works from contemporary artists who were inspired by the designer and his life.
Courtesy of museum’s webpages and Google
