Fashion Museum Bath collection

From 18th-century court dress to cycling clothes, Fashion Museum Bath cares for one of the world’s leading collections of fashion, spanning 400 years of human creativity, from around 1600 to the present day. It encompasses the full spectrum of fashion production, from haute couture to high street, home dressmaking to bespoke tailoring.

Alongside garments the Museum holds an extensive array of accessories, including hair combs, handkerchiefs, gloves, socks and ties. Children’s football boots and bunny slippers from the 1940s sit alongside ballet pointe shoes by Freed of London made in collaboration with Ballet Black in 2020.

Meanwhile our archives span a range of material from 18th-century fashion plates and 19th-century cartes de visites, to 20th-century designer sewing patterns and fashion photographs which capture the spirit of the swinging sixties.

Designated as a collection of outstanding national importance and of international significance for its rarity and uniqueness, we look after a huge range of objects from a rare 18th-century fashion doll’s dress to a man’s tobogganing outfit from 1884.

Dress of the Year

The centrepiece of the contemporary collection is the Dress of the Year scheme, established in 1963. Each year, the Fashion Museum invites a respected expert from the fashion industry to select a Dress of the Year that encapsulates the prevailing mood of fashion. Designers chosen over the years include Ossie Clark, Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace, Kenzo Takada, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Bianca Saunders.

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Fashion Museum Bath collection

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Other things to do in Bath

Fashion Museum Bath collection

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