One of the best museums (Museum of Costume)

Member Name: pjs21

Product:	Museum of Costume
Date:	05/09/00 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value, beautiful clothes.

Disadvantages: People looking at signs when they're listening to what it says on a tape!

I recently came back from a weekend in Bath - somewhere I had been advised to go. I had initially planned to visit the baths, but they were so packed with tourists that I was in and out of the place within 10 minutes. (I'm not one for crowds) The baths are twinned with another museum in the city centre - The Costume Museum.

I wasn't really sure what to expect - and I can't even tell you what to expect as they change they display fairly constantly so that they fresh costumes out. This makes it the kind of place you can return to again amonth or so later and see something completely different.

It didn't take very long to walk around - about an hour, hour and a half, but there was still so much to see.

The first room was very dark and the displays were dimly lit. The dim lighting is to protect the clothing. A full range of period costume, mens and womens. Some of the most beautiful clothes I have ever seen. They certainly used to know how to look sexy - what happened!

It had shoe collections, gloves, dresses, suits, hats, underwear, hosiery all clearly displayed and well written descriptions and facts on all of it.

The 2nd section was titled Women of Fashion it was dated form the 30's through to fairly modern and contained collections from major women of the 20th Century - Fontayne, Carnegie etc. There was something quite moving about it.

The final section was one outfit picked by someone in the fashion industry for each year that the museum had been open. It went from the 60's and came up to 2000. The clothes I remembered owning in the 70's were clearly out to be mocked by my girlfriend. I used to love my stripey knitted tanktops! It finished with the Versace Millenium Dress for the year 2000.

The circle in fashion is clear when you see it all out like this. The exhibitions are stunning, and there's something quite breathtaking about seeing these origin
al dresses and suits. It will make you realise how beautiful clothes can be.

If you are going to the baths - you can save a few pounds by buying a joint ticket for both museums. It really is worth it.

And one final thing - if you decide to hire one of their audio machines - please don't stand infront of the information signs when you're listening to them. The people who didn't hire them would quite like to read what the descriptions say. You only need to listen to it.

I would say that this Museum is well worth the visit to Bath alone. I loved the town, the food, the hotel - but this place was really something else.

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