Kunstindustrimuseet (Museum of Decorative Arts and Design)
Oslo
The exhibition consists of three displays, presenting important aspects of the museum’s extensive collection (they don’t give a number) of fashion design. The three exhibition spaces are The Royal Dress Collection (dresses worn by Queen Maud, Crown Princess Märtha, Queen Sonja and Princess Astrid), Fashion 1600s till 2000 (which is a bit of a misrepresentation, since only one garment is from the 1600’s), and Norwegian Fashion Designers (the current one is of Per Spook, but it is unclear how long they last for). Some highlights of the collection are available online here, (only in Norwegian). This museum is fairly traditional in how they portray dress, where the focus is on the objects, not the context in which they were worn. The mannequins have no heads (therefore no hairstyles or hats), and are not dressed with any sort of accessories, so they really showcase the few dresses more than any sort of evolution of fashion. Very little menswear included.
Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History)
Oslo
This mostly outdoor museum that focuses on traditional Norwegian culture has docents dressed in folk costume, and their indoor museum does a nice job at including the importance of weaving and knitting to Norwegian culture, as well as both traditional Norwegian and Sami dress. There is also a small hand weaving museum with looms and various types of handicrafts (lace, macramé, etc.) set up near the ceramic and jewelry studios where they focus on artisans.
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