Montreal gets new Fashion Museum

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Apr 22, 2016

Montreal’s Musée du costume et du textile du Québec announced on Thursday that it is undergoing a significant change as it becomes the Fashion Museum.
 
“The objective is to increase the national and international exposure of Quebec’s heritage and to build a solid community around the museum,” explains Joanne Watkins, director at the Fashion Museum, about the name change, in a news statement.

 
The museum was first founded in 1979 in the city of St-Lambert, under the name the Musée Marsil. It became the Musée du costume et du textile du Québec in 2006 and moved to its current location at the Marché Bonsecours, located in Old Montreal, in 2013.
 
“I think that this rare jewel is still too well hidden,” says Jean-Claude Poitras, the museum’s president since 2014, in a news statement. “Admittedly, the museum is of small stature, but it is now about to come out and play in the big leagues. With the Fashion Museum, we shift between innovation and tradition.”

Today, the museum’s archive is comprised of more than 7500 artifacts linked to the history of fashion and textile arts.