Women of fashion museums. Stories of enlightened women, art historians, collectors and editors who have brought fashion into museums

This paper provides an overview of a study about the birth of fashion museums in Italy with reference to the role that women have played within these cultural institutions. The research focuses on three main case studies: Palma Bucarelli, Anna Piaggi, and Cecilia Matteucci Lavarini. The former was the first woman director of Rome’s National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, the second was the legendary fashion editor to whom the Victoria and Albert Museum has dedicated the exhibition entitled "Anna Piaggi: Fashion-ology", and the last is a collector of Haute Couture dresses and Oriental costumes. Significant exhibitions have been dedicated to these style icons in international venues while their clothes are enriching the permanent collections of museums such as the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum in Rome or the Museum of Costume and Fashion in Florence. The paper aims to bring to the surface the importance that these figures have had in the history of fashion museology.