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The
Costume Gallery is housed in the small building
of the Meridiana of the Pitti Palace, which was
begun under Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1776 and
ended in 1840 and chosen as residence by the families
that ruled Tuscany and by the Savoy house until
1946. The Lorraine/Savoy rooms display the exhibitions
of the collections of historical clothes and accessoires,
which had previously been stored in the palace´s
warehouses.
The collections cover the period between the 18th
century and the present-day. The recent restoration
of the funeral garments of Grand Duke Cosimo de´
Medici, of Eleonora of Toledo and of her son Don
Garzia has further enriched the museum with some
rare examples from the 16th century.
The rooms, equipped with air-conditioned display
stands, exhibit every two months different selections
of clothes in order to represent the evolution of
fashion for didactic purposes. Some of the rooms,
like the dancing hall, are instead used for temporary
exhibitions. The decision to change the displayed
clothes every two years originates from the need
of guaranteeing their preservation, but also offers
the opportunity of displaying the patrimony preserved
in the depository, mostly from private donors.
The collections of the Costume Gallery also include
a group of about ninety theatre costumes belonging
to the Sartoria Tirelli, which were given to the
museum together with a large number of historical
clothes by Umberto Tirelli. The Meridiana building,
close to the gallery, is also the seat of a fabric
restoration laboratory. |
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