Galleria del Costume

In the Meridiana wing of Palazzo Pitti, Italy's first state museum of fashion traces dress from the eighteenth century to today. Funeral garments of Cosimo I de' Medici and Eleonora of Toledo anchor the displays, while Fortuny gowns, Charleston dresses and theatre costumes carry the story into the twentieth century.

Why it matters

Founded in 1983, the Uffizi Galleries describe it as Italy's first state museum dedicated to the history of fashion and its social significance. The setting adds its own dimension: the Palazzina della Meridiana is a neoclassical wing begun for one grand duke and finished under another, added to the Medici palace a century after its main construction.

What to notice

The permanent anchor is a group of sixteenth-century funeral garments, fully restored, belonging to Cosimo I de' Medici, Eleonora of Toledo and their son Garzia — clothing that survived in a grave context and now documents Medici-era textile luxury at first hand. The collection spans the eighteenth century and later periods: Neoclassical gowns, Fortuny's Tunica Delphos with its finely pleated silk, and Charleston dresses of the 1920s, among them a piece by the Maison Chanel. The collection also includes twentieth-century dresses and stage costumes from productions by leading directors, extending its scope to theatre, film and opera. Accessories including shoes, parasols and jewellery document changing forms of dress and taste.

Context and history

The wing's history complements the costume collection. The Uffizi Galleries record that construction of the Palazzina della Meridiana began in 1776 under the architect Gaspero Maria Paoletti for Grand Duke Peter Leopold and was completed in 1830 by Pasquale Poccianti under Leopold II, making it a Lorraine-era addition to a Medici palace. Its name comes from the meridiana, an astronomical instrument Vincenzo Viviani created in 1699; the gnomon pinhole remains in the vestibule of Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici's apartment, on a vault where Anton Domenico Gabbiani painted an Allegory of Time and the Arts in 1693 — time keeping watch, literally, over a museum of fashion. The collection itself grew, as the official history stresses, almost exclusively through donations from private individuals, companies and associations, which is why its range runs from court dress to haute couture and everyday taste.