Palais Galliera, the Paris fashion museum at Chaillot since 1895

The Palais Galliera, the fashion museum of the City of Paris, held its first exhibition on 1 March 1895 on the Chaillot hill, on avenue Pierre-Ier-de-Serbie. The Duchess of Galliera, Maria Brignole Sale De Ferrari, had Léon Ginain build it to house her collection, which she meant to leave to Paris.

Outraged by the 1886 law exiling the families that had reigned over France, the duchess withdrew the bequest of her works, which stayed in Genoa. She died in 1888, and her heirs completed the neo-Renaissance palace in 1894. The city first showed portraits of women and lace there, then turned it into a museum of industrial art.

Maurice Leloir’s costume collection led to a costume museum, opened in 1956 under Madeleine Delpierre. In 1977 the palace became the Musée de la Mode et du Costume. Closed in 2018, it reopened in 2020 with the Gabrielle Chanel galleries, dug beneath it and funded by the house of Chanel.

In the 16th arrondissement, opposite the Palais de Tokyo, the museum shows its holdings of some 200,000 pieces, through successive exhibitions, three a year on average: fashion from the 18th century to the present, up to the great couturiers.