Museum of Fashion and Applied Arts

One of the very few Italian museum institutions dedicated to the history of textiles and costumes. The exhibition path winds through the Dornberg, Tasso, and Formentini Houses.

The exhibition, which winds through the Dornberg, Tasso, and Formentini houses, opens with a section dedicated to the production, processing, and weaving of silk, activities that were of great importance in the Gorizia area, part of the Habsburg Empire until 1918, especially in the 18th century, thanks to the impetus given by Emperors Maria Theresa and Joseph II.

In the Gorizia area, simple, high-quality silk fabrics were produced, such as taffeta and gros de Tours, as well as small woven fabrics and splendid damasks. This historical chapter is told through textile samples and machinery, including a monumental circular silk twisting machine dating back to the mid-18th century.

Considered the oldest of its kind, this unique machine is powered not by a waterwheel, but by a person inside who must push it while walking backward. On December 3, 2019, to mark the Museum's twentieth anniversary, a new exhibition was inaugurated, showcasing a selection of the collections based on three common threads: stripes, checks, and flowers. These three patterns span the history of costume, changing their connotations and meanings, sometimes radically.

Between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, they were much-loved decorative motifs, which colored the clothes (and accessories!) of men, women, and children with varying degrees of (in)formality. Evidence of this is found in the fashion sketches and the multifaceted objects that make up museum collections.

The exhibition begins with fabric samples (silk, of course) and moves on to dresses, jewelry, lace, hats, embroidered handkerchiefs, bags, and parasols. The textile samples on display were selected according to the exhibition's three guiding themes—stripes, checks, and flowers—and an interactive multimedia installation allows visitors to experiment with textile design, creating a wide variety of combinations to their liking.

The central section of the exhibition displays selected garments featuring striped and checked fabrics, ranging from the 18th to the early 20th century. Among the most spectacular are the mid-19th-century women's dresses, designed to be worn with full crinolines.

Another multimedia installation based on fashion sketches takes visitors on a journey through the history of costume, including domestic interiors, gardens, and theaters. The final section of the exhibition was conceived by Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols as a sequence of situations inspired by the theme of flowers.

The exhibition ranges from 18th-century men's clothing, more flowery than a herbarium, to 1920s parasols. Among the women's dresses, those designed by Maria Monaci Gallenga, with flowers inspired by Renaissance fabrics, stand out, but a parade of 20th-century dresses demonstrates how popular the floral theme was throughout the century. At the end of the exhibition, a shower of flowers creates an atmosphere of pure poetry.

The new layout of the Museum of Fashion and Applied Arts stands out for its significant expansion of its collections, thanks to recent acquisitions funded by the National Research Council (NRRP). These include a significant collection of European-level clothing from the 18th to the first half of the 20th century, previously unseen, which fills chronological gaps in the exhibition. This is complemented by new thematic insights—from silk production with a rare working 18th-century twisting mill, to the glassworks of the Gorizia area and the vestments of the Monastery of Sant'Orsola—enriched by multimedia and a renewed narrative structure that integrates fashion, applied arts, and historical context.