Gallery of Costume

The Museum of Fashion and Costume, known until 2015 as the Gallery of Costume (Galleria del Costume), is a specialized fashion museum located within the Pitti Palace complex in Florence, Italy. Founded in 1983 under the direction of Kristen Aschengreen Piacenti, it is currently the only museum in Italy dedicated to the history of fashion and costume. The museum holds particular significance as one of the world's important institutions of its kind, tracing the evolution of dress from the 16th century to the present through a collection exceeding 6,000 artifacts. Its location within the historic Palazzina della Meridiana, accessible from the Boboli Gardens, places it within one of Italy's most visited state museum circuits.

The museum was established in 1983 under the directorship of Kristen Aschengreen Piacenti. The founding represented a significant institutional commitment to preserving and displaying the history of dress in Italy. The collections have grown substantially through public and private donations, including the acquisition of entire wardrobes from notable figures. In 2000, the gallery underwent a lengthy restoration and reopened in June of that year. The museum's name was changed from Gallery of Costume to Museum of Fashion and Costume in 2015. The institution has organized numerous thematic and monographic exhibitions since its founding, with displays rotating at least every two years due to the fragility of the objects.

The collection encompasses more than 6,000 artifacts spanning from the 16th century to the present, though the museum's primary focus covers the period from the 18th century onward. The holdings include antique clothing, accessories, theatrical and cinematic costumes of documentary importance, and a collection of 20th-century costume jewelry. The chronological and thematic arrangement traces the succession of fashions across centuries. Notable strengths include works by celebrated Italian and international designers such as Valentino, Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Emilio Pucci, Ottavio Missoni, and Yves Saint Laurent. The collection also preserves significant theatrical costumes assembled by Umberto Tirelli, founder of an important tailoring house specializing in this sector.

Among the museum's exceptional rarities are the funeral garments of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, his wife Eleonora di Toledo, and their son Garzia, who died of malaria at age fifteen. These were recovered from the Medici Chapels and restored in the museum's own laboratories. The collection also includes garments from the Sicilian noblewoman Franca Florio, costumes belonging to the actress Eleonora Duse, and the wardrobe of Venere Musarra, which documents Sicilian bourgeois taste from the 1920s to the 1950s. The Flora Wiechmann Savioli donation, exhibited in 2001, comprises jewelry, clothing, abstract paintings, fashion accessories, and small family art objects. The museum also holds the Riva collection of approximately three thousand buttons, examples of male elegance crafted in gold, silver, and precious stones, displayed between 2007 and 2008.

The museum is located in Florence, Italy, within the Pitti Palace complex, and is accessible from the Boboli Gardens. It operates under the auspices of the Uffizi Galleries, as indicated by its official website. Visitors typically use the same ticket as for the Boboli Gardens, with access permitted at fixed hours. The Boboli Gardens museum circuit, which includes the Treasury of the Grand Dukes, the Museum of Fashion and Costume, the Museum of Porcelain, and the Bardini Garden, ranked as the sixth most visited Italian state site in 2013, with 710,523 visitors and total gross revenue of 2,722,872 euros. In 2016, the circuit recorded 881,463 visitors.