Palazzina Della Meridiana Opens up After Four-Year-Long Renovation With a New Collection

Art and fashion have always been interlinked with each other throughout history, giving a tough and complex dialogue in determining the present or future trends of creativity. Among this history of fashion, most of the captivating glimpses that show an interplay between art and the historical environment of the Museum are the exquisite dresses from the 18th century to the 2000s, which come on display again after four years with around 15000 objects of fashion from July 16 to December 31, 2024, at the Palazzina della Meridiana.

For around four years, the historical premises of the Palazzina della Meridiana were under renovation due to which the rooms that traditionally house the collections from the Museum of Costume and Fashion were closed. It now opens with a new arrangement, offering the visitors a selection of rare and precious dresses accompanied by accessories, shoes, hats, fans, parasols, and bags. This collection consists of more than 15,000 items, and that is why it will be displayed over time according to the rotations classified by typologies, themes, and leitmotifs. Further, this new arrangement will also propose a journey through the evolution of fashion and taste as seen in the historical development from the 18th century to the present day.

The director of the Uffizi Galleries Simone Verde explains,

“The costume and its history are intrinsically connected with art and we have we wanted to underline this connection through a pairing of clothes with a selection of prestigious paintings. The rearrangement of the Fashion museum is very important for the Galleries: this institute, unique in its kind in Italy, it helps to connect the complex with the most lively contemporaneity, allowing us to play a role based on the most multifaceted multidisciplinarity, in connection and proximity, as is traditional for the world of fashion, with theatre, dance, photography and performing arts”.

One of the significant elements of this new arrangement is the interplay between dresses and accessories in the most diverse form of art, especially painting, as these gorgeous and majestic dresses have always been a part of narrating fashion. These dresses have not only been part of the rich and luxurious society of earlier times but remained a part of the fascinating coeval portraits represented by painters like Carle Vanloo, Laurent Pecheux, and Jean-Sébastien Rouillard as well as the elegant portraits by nineteenth-century ones such as Tito Conti, Giovanni Boldini, Edoardo Gelli and Vittorio Corcos, passing through the most relevant artists of the Italian avant-garde including Massimo Campigli, Giulio Turcato, Corrado Cagli and Alberto Burri. Director Simone Verde and the Museum’s curator Vanessa Gavioli especially focussed on this symbiosis of fashion and painting as the new arrangement of the Museum aims to recreate an ideal palimpsest that forms a genuine relationship of different arts with the viewer.

The curator of the Fashion Museum Vanessa Gavioli says,

“Creating for the permanent exhibition of the nucleus for the first time in the history of the museum’s fundamental part of the collection was an exciting challenge. The objective, from the beginning, was that from the story of this itinerary emerging… Obviously, for conservative reasons, there will be rotations but the grid chronological and conceptual framework will remain stable”.

Besides this interconnection of these two forms, fashion always connects with the plastic arts. For instance, there is a resemblance between porcelain vases and the sleeves of the 18th century. Another connection of fashion is with the theatre and sculpture, which can be best seen in the relationship between Mariano Fortuny’s dress worn by Eleonora Duse and the actress’s face sculpted by Arrigo Minerbi.

To elaborate, in these newly inaugurated rooms, the visitor will find luxurious clothes from the eighteenth century which are typical examples of obe à la française, an excellent representation of the era in which the court established the fashion of dresses according to the power established by the regulations of the label. Next comes the Empire-style garments like crepe of ivory silk that is decorated by the silver foil embroidery, belonging to Massimilla Celano, wife of Prailo Mayo. Her exquisite dress depicts how Napoleonic period clothing gave much preference to comfort to allow the body to move without any constraints. Along the way, there are rare-nineteenth-century dresses like the model in the golden silk with a motif of peonies and daisies which belonged to Angiola Polese, a young noblewoman from the 1830s; very refined wedding dress, made by Charles Frederick Worth, in ivory-colored satin and gros de Tours, with voluminous tournure. Further, there are evening outfits like the black mechanical mesh dress on ivory silk satin by Catherine Donovan. But that is not it as the collection has many more secrets to veil.

This exquisite exhibition not only foretells the history, society, and culture of Italy in a more detailed and creative way but also gives a long-lasting impression to its viewers.

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