The Collection

Fashion Museum Bath holds one of the world’s leading collections of fashion. From haute couture to home dressmaking, spanning from the time of Shakespeare to the catwalk, the collection unveils five centuries of fashion and illustrates how clothes make and shape us.

Founded in 1963 as the Museum of Costume, the original collection was gifted to the city of Bath by collector, writer, and dress historian Doris Langley Moore in 1959. Designated by HM Government as a collection of outstanding national significance, it has since grown to over 100,000 objects.

Highlights include the pioneering Dress of the Year collection; a fashion doll’s dress from the 1770s; the Glove Collection of the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London, which has been on loan to the Fashion Museum since the 1980s; examples of Christian Dior’s New Look; work of leading twentieth century British designers including Lucile, Norman Hartnell, Bianca Mosca, Victor Stiebel. The Museum also has an important archival collection, including material from Parisian couture houses Worth and Paquin and London-based designers David Sassoon and Peter Jensen.

The Collection is currently stored at heritage glove makers Dents in Warminster. The Fashion Museum has an extensive loans out programme - in 2023 1.3m people saw Fashion Museum objects on loan.

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

The Collection

Fashion Museum Bath holds one of the world’s leading collections of fashion. From haute couture to home dressmaking, spanning from the time of Shakespeare to the catwalk, the collection unveils five centuries of fashion and illustrates how clothes make and shape us.

Explore Bath's world heritage

Explore Bath's world heritage

Other things to do in Bath

The Collection

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