Fashion Museums in Paris

Musée de la Mode et du Textile
107, rue de Rivoli, 1st
M° Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre , Tuileries or Pyramides
The museum of fashion and fabric holds a collection of fabrics from as early as the 14th century, costumes from the 17th century and creations from famous designers of the 20th century.

Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris – Palais Galliera
10, avenue Pierre Ier de Serbie, 16th
M° Iéna or Alma-Marceau, RER Pont de l’Alma
You just can't imagine Paris without fashion. The buzz and the glamour are all here and this museum is a tribute to this fact. Inaugurated in 1977, it continues to inform people about the history and evolving trends in fashion. Exhibits keep on changing, and you are sure to find something new and interesting on display every time you come here.
The Galliera isn't always open, since there's no permanent collection on display. It organizes regular exhibitions around a specific theme, such as a time period, a style, a particular aspect of fashion like shoes or dresses, or even famous personalities.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays this museum organize special workshops for different age groups. Personalize your jeans, learn to become a fashion designer or a costume maker, discover the historical costumes and much more.
Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint-Laurent
1, rue Léonce Reynaud, 16th
M° Alma-Marceau
Exhibiting the artistic creation of Yves Saint-Laurent.

Below is our selections of the Fashion museums in Paris. Just click on the link to any of the museum titles below to visit the museum's website, where you will find all the relevant detail information you'll need. Some Paris museum websites are only in French, but most have an English version of the site.

Brief History of Haute Couture

Haute Couture has come a long way since the days of Louis XIV who promoted French fashion through Fashion Dolls. Louis XIV wanted all of Europe to know about Paris fashions so he began sending life-sized fashion dolls to every European Court. The dolls were exquisite and represented the latest word in fashion and trimmings. Noble ladies would have their tailors imitate the clothes, footwear, hats and accessories on the latest dolls.

You can see some of these dolls in the Doll Museum.

The fashion history of Haute Couture truly began in France in the 18th century with couturier Rose Bertin as Minister for Fashion and continued with Leroy after Napoleon became Emperor in 1804. Later in the 19th century Englishman Charles Worth first put his name on the label of clothes. In 1858 in Paris he began to produce collections of clothes from his own ideas for clients. His ideas of showing finished couture garments on live models were a huge success and the designers began to dictate what might be fashionable.

Fashion has been important industry and cultural export of France since the seventeenth century, and today, Paris, along with Tokyo, London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals. The city is home to many of the premier fashion houses like Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Chloé, Hermès, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent as well as many foreign designers.