The followingdress and textile collections are currently closed to research visits or are offering reduced access only. The list has been updated on 14 July 2023. Please get in touch with the web editor with corrections.

Fashion Museum, Bath
The Fashion Museum is currently in the process of relocating to a new home in Bath. The museum left the Assembly Rooms in October 2022, and the collection is now in a temporary home at the headquarters of Dents Glovemakers, just outside Warminster.
The Fashion Museum collection is not open to group visits whilst at Dents, but individual study visits can be booked from February 2024.
You can read more about the move here: https://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/our-future
If you are interested in booking a collection visit please contact the curatorial team.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is currently closed to the public (and the date for its reopening is yet to be determined). However, Birmingham’s collection is still open to researchers, on a very limited basis. Researchers can view objects one day a month only.
More information and a booking form are here: https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/collection/collection-enquiries-and-access

British Museum, London
The Department of Textiles is currently closed for the Blythe House collection move project.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/resources/study-rooms#study-room-information

Manchester Art Gallery/Platt Hall
Access is very restricted for researchers until mid 2025 due to an ongoing major project to rationalise, audit, move and re-store of all the costume collection. Access to PhD students only can be provided on Wednesdays. http://www.platthall.org/collections.html

Museum of London
Due to critical collections work, including the complete reorganisation of the museum’s storage, research access will be closed from the end of December 2022 for two years.
During this period it will not be possible to book tour visits to the archive. This will be reviewed after 18 months. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/access-and-enquiries

Totnes Fashion & Textiles Museum
The Totnes Fashion & Textiles Museum is closed, as result of on-going restoration work to the Grade I* Listed Bogan House (in which it is housed). It is anticipated that the Museum will not be able to reopen until the summer of 2024.
Interested parties can interrogate our website www.totftm.org for details of the Collection and opening dates (when known).

York Castle Museum
York Castle Museum is currently closed to collections research visits. Unless indicated otherwise on the museum’s website, researchers who are interested in the collection are welcome to request information and high-resolution photographs of a reasonable number of objects. Requests must be submitted through the enquiries portal. Please note that due to staff capacity, requests for information and photographs of small items should be made with at least three months’ notice, and requests for photographs of larger items with at least six months’ notice.
Researchers who are interested in objects currently on display are welcome to visit the museum, but please note that we are not able to remove objects from their cases. For further information, or if you have any queries, please submit these via the enquiries portal. The museum does plan to reopen to research visits, but we cannot currently provide a timescale.