Utrecht is a cultural magnet. It has been for over 2000 years: artists, artisans, religious figures, politicians, philosophers and scientists found their place here, left something behind, shaping Utrecht as they went. All these objects are represented in the collections city history, old painting, modern art, applied art, but also in fashion design & costumes. In “Dit is het Centraal Museum” (“This is the Centraal Museum!”), you will find a 17th-century leather buff coat as well as a slightly earlier pointed leather hat with a large brim. The hat was found between the bricks of one of the walls of the City orphanage in the year 1875. In the next room, a finely woven linen summer dress is presented. Its dome formed skirt gives an idea of the practicality of a bourgeois woman’s outfit on a hot summer day in 1860. A few rooms away, across high-end furniture and paintings, are the more recent pieces by Iris van Herpen, Klavers van Engelen and Viktor & Rolf. With its close to complete collection of historical fashion, Centraal Museum now focuses on designers who dare to cross the borders of the discipline of fashion.

For more information, please visit Centraal Museum.
Image: © Centraal Museum/Ernst Moritz