Museo del Traje
The Museum of Garment - Ethnological Heritage Research Center is a museum and ethnology heritage research center in Madrid, Spain, devoted to promote, disseminate, value, and improve knowledge about the historical evolution of clothing and fashion. It is one of the National Museums of Spain and it is attached to the Ministry of Culture.
The museum has over 160,000 pieces and documents. The current building was completed in 1973. Collections date from the Middle Ages up to clothes by Spain's contemporary fashion designers.
History
The current Museo del Traje dates from 2004. The museum, despite being a newly created institution, has a long and curious history. Its origin lies in the Historic Costume Exhibition, held in 1925. In the keynote address at this event, the Count of Romanones raised the idea of making the temporary exhibition permanent. Two years later he created a Board of Trustees of the Museum who would take charge of the funds of the exhibition, receiving them from the state, and form them into the new Regional Costume Museum and History.In 1934, the Count creates the idea of creating another institution to pick up these treasured collections and also the traditions of the Spanish People. This new museum, the Museum of the Spanish Village, acquired the collections of Ethnography and Folk Art at the School of Education, and contained an extensive series of objects that the Regional Trustees acquired between 1934 and 1936. After several changes of venue the collections were moved in 1983 into the building then occupied by the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo. In 1993 the Museum of the Spanish Village and the National Museum of Ethnology are united in a single institution, the National Museum of Anthropology. However, both continued to operate independently.
Finally, in 2002, after a general discussion on the future of the museum, it was decided to enhance the public presence of the collection of costumes, from a modern perspective.