Museum of Costume Museums

One of the world's finest collections of fashionable dress and accessories. Explore our extensive collections of fashionable dress and accessories.

The Museum of Costume organises a special exhibition each year. The annual exhibition highlights a particular aspect of fashion. Special exhibitions normally open in early December and run until the following November.

The collection focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day. The Museum of Costume was opened in the Bath Assembly Rooms in 1963. It was the creation of Doris Langley Moore, a designer, collector and historian, who gave her famous private collection of costume to the city.

The Museum of Costume now has over 30,000 objects in its collection. Within the museum's collection there are a number of individual collections of clothes and fashion accessories (such as the Dress of the Year collection and an important loan collection of decorative gloves belonging to the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London). .