On 8 December 2022, the new display “The Emperor’s Wardrobe. For the 350th Anniverary of the Birth of Peter the Great” was formally opened at the State Hermitage’s Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre.
The Costume Gallery, which was opened to the public five years ago, is now given over for the first time to Petrine mementos and items from the “Wardrobe of Peter I”, which is unequivocally hailed as the world’s finest collection of male costume from the late 17th century and the first quarter of the 18th.
“This display rounds off a series of exhibition devoted to Peter the Great. This is the main exhibition of the Year of Peter I at the Hermitage. It is a reminder that the Hermitage is a monument to Russian statehood. The museum possesses a tremendous collection of Peter the Great’s costumes. At the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre, the world’s finest open-storage facility is combined with restoration. This Hermitage exhibition proclaims that superb curators, restorers and engineers work here,” Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, observed.
Also participating in the opening ceremony were Georgy Vilinbakhov, Deputy General Director for Research, Svetlana Adaksina, Deputy General Director and Chief Curator, Viacheslav Feodorov, head of the Department of the History of Russian Culture, Nina Tarasova, head of the Applied Art Sector within the Department of the History of Russian Culture and curator of the display, Marina Denisova, head of the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Fabrics, and Vladimir Dobrovolsky, head of the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre Department.
The new display not only reveals the wealth and diversity of the clothing worn by the founder of Saint Petersburg, but also clearly demonstrates the gap between the mythologized image of Peter the Great wearing military uniform or the modest attire of a carpenter and the actual contents of the wardrobe that has come down to us today. Specialists and the general public will be able to see for the first time a whole group of exhibits that have made the far from straightforward 300-year-long journey from the palace storerooms to the podium of the Costume Gallery.
Reflecting the particulars of his character, passions and enthusiasm, the clothing of Russia’s first emperor reveals Peter to have been a stylish man with excellent taste, able to appreciate the beauty of a fabric, an elegant decorative finish, the quality of the work and the comfort of an outfit. This display also makes it possible to grasp the direct influence that the Emperor had on the development of fashion in Russia.
The “Emperor’s Wardrobe” can be visited as part of a guided tour of the open-storage facility at the Staraya Derevnya Restoration and Storage Centre.
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