Fashion Museums
Salvatore Ferragamo
The Ferragamo's 700 year old Palazzo Spini Feroni on Via Tornabuoni at the Arno River, houses their retail store and the shoe museum downstairs.
The orthopedic wedge was invented by Ferragamo in 1935. The "Shoemaker to the Stars" also designed this famous platform sandal in 1938 to Judy Garland. Here, layers of different colored chamois were used for the soles with the straps made of gold kid leather.
With a shortage of materials during WWII, Ferragamo utilized his creativity by incorporating wood and cork into platform soles and popularized the novelty of non-leather shoes.
The museum has about 10,000 shoes in its collection, dating from the 1920s, when Ferragamo began creating shoes for Hollywood films, to the present. To conserve the shoes they are rotated and only 150 to 180 pairs are displayed at any time.
| Address: | Phone: |
| Via Tornabuoni, 2 | 055.3360456 |
| 50123 Firenze | |
| Email: | Admission: |
| museoferragamo@ferragamo.com | 5 Euro |
| Hours: | Closed: |
| Wed to Mon 10:00am - 6:00pm | Tuesdays |
Fondazione Roberto Capucci
The Fondazione Roberto Capucci is located on the upper floors of the stunning seventeenth century Villa Bardini. The foundation boasts an incredible quantity of documentary material on the career of the great Roman designer Roberto Capucci. The Museum showcases 400 high fashion creations, 300 illustrations, 22,000 sketches, 22 notebooks, 150 audiovisuals as well as 40,000 photographs and similar number of articles that all testify to the Roman maestro's long and intense career.
The museums objective is to re-launch Italian tradition of refinement, style and passion for beauty, and to reaffirm the supremacy of quality and the importance of experimentation in fashion.
The museum is located on a hill on the Oltrarno and boasts some breathtaking views of the entire historic center of Florence. The view and the relaxing atmosphere that Villa Bardini offers is reason enough to visit.
| Address: | Phone: |
| Villa Bardini - Costa San Giorgio 2 | 055.2654321 |
| 50125 Firenze | |
| Website: | Admission: |
| www.fondazionerobertocapucci.com | 5 Euro |
| Hours: | |
| Weekdays 10am to 4pm | |
| Weekends: 10am to 6pm |
Galleria del costume
Palazzo Pitti
The first state-operated museum dedicated entirely to study and preservation of costumes, accessories, and fabrics. Its prestigious headquarters is the neoclassical Palazzina della Meridiana built by Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine in 1776 on the south side of Palazzo Pitti.
Today, the museum storage rooms preserve a collection of more than 6000 items, including ancient and modern garments, accessories, and costumes for the theater and the cinema.
It is a unique gallery whose center is the famous Medici collection, among the world’s oldest, made up of the burial clothes worn by Cosimo I Grand Duke of Tuscany, his wife Eleonora de Toledo, and their son Don Garzia, all restored in the museum’s own restoration shops.
Apart of the museum is also reserved for contemporary costume, representing great protagonists of international high fashion such as Worth, Poiret, Vionnet, Capucci, Missoni, Valentino, Pucci, Ferrè, and Yves Saint Laurent.
| Address: | Phone: |
| Piazza de' Pitti, 1 | 055.2388601 |
| 50125 Firenze | |
| Hours: | Admission: |
| Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb 8:15am - 4:30pm | 7 Euro |
| Mar 8:15am – 5:30pm | |
| Apr, May, Sep, Oct 8:15am – 6:30pm | Closed |
| Jun, Jul, Aug 8:15am – 7:50pm | First and last Monday of the month |
| The last entrance is an hour before closing |
