Fashion and Photography Museums
September 11, 2009
A premise is certainly needed here. This article does not want to be in any way a guide to the best museums in the world in terms of fashion and photography. It is just a short overview on places we have heard of and in some cases visited ourselves, that we feel are extremely interesting for anyone who loves fashion and photography to see. So all you fashion and photography historians out there, don't write us flaming emails saying "you're crazy!!! you didn't talk about this and that!!! and that place you talked about is crap!!!" This article is just a drop in the bucket...
This said, let's start from very far away in Japan. In Kobe precisely (not far from Osaka, in southern Japan). We were in Kobe in 2005 to meet with students there and we had this museum right in front of our hotel. It's a place we wanted to visit but we had so little time that we didn't make it in the end. Opened in 1997, the Kobe Fashion Museum is the first museum in Japan entirely dedicated to fashion. When Kobe's harbour was opened to foreigners in the late 19th century, the western clothing industry invaded Japan. This met with the demands of European and American traders but also with the Japanese themselves who were wamming up to modernity. And Kobe became a hub for fashion in Japan, to the point that it was nominated "Japanese Fashion City" in 1973. The museum has a richly assorted public library and systematically collects samples of the local textile production. It's main collection includes European outfits and accessories from the 18th century up to the present day. It also has an interesting audiovisual department and a large collection of fashion photography.
Let's move to Europe now, precisely to Moulins, a small French town on the banks of the Allier river. Sounds like an unknown place but hey, Coco Chanel grew up here in the Moulins Notre-Dame convent, where she learned to stitch! This is also the home of the "Centre National du Costume de Scène" (CNCS) with over 13,000 costumes dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Here you can see costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint-Laurent, Christian Lacroix (who is also the president of the CNCS), Thierry Mugler. Three institutions contributed to this stunning collection of theatre clothes: the "Bibliothèque Nationale de France" (almost 1,500 costumes), the "Opéra National de Paris" (about 5,000 costumes) and the "Comédie-Française" (about 700 costumes).
Let's move to Europe now, precisely to Moulins, a small French town on the banks of the Allier river. Sounds like an unknown place but hey, Coco Chanel grew up here in the Moulins Notre-Dame convent, where she learned to stitch! This is also the home of the "Centre National du Costume de Scène" (CNCS) with over 13,000 costumes dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Here you can see costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint-Laurent, Christian Lacroix (who is also the president of the CNCS), Thierry Mugler. Three institutions contributed to this stunning collection of theatre clothes: the "Bibliothèque Nationale de France" (almost 1,500 costumes), the "Opéra National de Paris" (about 5,000 costumes) and the "Comédie-Française" (about 700 costumes).
Stilll in France but moving to Paris, there's the "Musée de la Mode et du Textile" located in the Louvre buildings in Paris. It was created in the beginning of the 80's to collect the huge costume archive of the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. It has an amazing number of outfits. We're talking over 19,000 costumes and outfits from the 17th century up to present day, more than 36,000 accessories and 31,000 samples of fabrics. Enough to really display an amazing journey in fashion history! Over here you get see creations by designers like Elsa Schiaparelli, Pierre Balmain, Paul Poiret, Christian Dior, Jeremy Scott, Alexander McQueen, Hedi Slimane, André Courrèges and many, many more! If you happen to be in Paris, it's worth a visit...
A 2 hour train ride and you're in London, at the Victoria & Albert Museum with its impressive collection dedicated to Fashion, Accessories (including hats) and Jewellery and continuous temporary exhibitions displaying all facets and aspects of fashion design. The V&A takes great attention to progressive and influential designs, so together with outfits from the 17th century you'll be able to see present day experimentations. Some might argue that the selection of a few of the outfits on permanent display are not the most representative of the fashion designers who made them, but that's personal taste and it does not change the fact that this is certainly a museum that gives fashion huge consideration. No surprise that everyone who is interested in fashion and happens to be in London always tries to pay a visit.
Moving from fashion to photography, we go to Italy where the amazing Alinari Archive is based in Florence (with branches in Rome and Milan as well). "Fratelli Alinari" was founded in 1852 as a photography laboratory, and it is the oldest company working in the photography, image and communication field. This really is a special, fascinating place, and we don't know if anyone else can boast an incredible 3,500,000 photographs in their archive, documenting the whole history of photography from the earliest daguerreotypes to present day digital photos. They have recently opened an online archive, so you should log on to their website.
Going back to France for the "Maison Européenne de la Photographie" in Paris. This is a major centre for contemporary photographic art. It is a place designed to make the three basic photographic mediums - exhibition prints, the printed page and film - easily accessible. It houses several exhibitions each year, and at present (you have time 'til 30 August) there's an exhibition on Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Moving to the United States there's the ICP - International Centre of Photography, based in New York city. Not only is it a museum, it's also a school. The museum collects some 100,000 photos acquired through the years (it was opened in 1973) and displaying the history of photography, with an interesting section dedicated to photographically illustrated magazines from the period between the two World Wars, such as "Picture Post", "Lilliput", "Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung" and "LIFE".
Again, remember these are simple tips. And remember that if you happen to be in Trieste for some reason, there's another special place you shouldn't miss if you're interested in creativity. It's the ITS#ARCHIVE, our "protected reserve for talent" just above our offices. We surely cannot boast the numbers of the museums we talked above, but there certainly is enough to outline a clear overview of young creativity in fashion and photography in the last eight years. There's over 5000 neatly catalogued portfolios from over 80 countries, about 120 outfits, 60 accessories and over 450 photos displaying what ITS has done in eight editions. You could be the witness of the beginning of an important museum on creativity...
