What's on Offer?

The gallery is split into six main areas exploring fashion’s impact on the female body shape, why we buy and wear clothes, what clothes are made from and its importance in Leicestershire’s industrial history.

There is also a temporary exhibition gallery, The Changing Room, which will host a series of changing displays created from Leicestershire County Council’s Heritage Service’s extensive collection of historic and contemporary clothing and other important national, regional and private collections.

The displays are supported with specially designed interactive exhibits including a unique database of information about training for a career in fashion.

Highlights of the collection include designs by John Galliano for Dior, Alexander McQueen, Ossie Clarke, Mary Quant, Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes. Fashion from Armani and Chanel will stand alongside garments from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Classic Dior’s from the 1950s will contrast with 1960s and 1970s boutique clothing while corsets from the Symington collection will show how fashion has been used to change the shape of the human body.

Most of the collection has been donated by local residents including a Swiss national costume worn as a wedding dress in the 1940s.

The Fashion Gallery has been made possible with a grant from Heritage Lottery Fund and ongoing sponsorship from Next plc.