Professional associations

Camera Nazionale della Moda
The Camera nazionale della Moda is a non-profit organization which regulates and promotes the development of Italian fashion. It embodies the highest cultural standards of Italian fashion and its aim is to protect, coordinate and strengthen the image of Italian fashion in Italy and abroad.
Ever since 1958, when it was founded, it has been pursuing a policy of organizational support for high level events, both at home and abroad, geared to spreading and developing Italian fashion.
http://www.cameramoda.it/

Sistema Moda Italia
The Italian "Filiera Tessile Abbigliamento" is the world largest organization of clothing industries. It safeguards and promotes the interests of the textile clothing industry and its associates.
http://www.sistemamodaitalia.it/home.php3

A.I.M.P.E.S. – Associazione italiana pellettieri
It comprises the most qualified manufacturers of real and synthetic leather goods. This association is representative of this sector, which includes both large industrial entities as well as small artisan companies.
http://www.aimpes.it/

A.N.-C. I. - Associazione Nazionale Calzaturifici Italiani
http://www.ancionline.com/

Museums of Fashion and Costume

Galleria del Costume di Firenze
The idea of a Costume Gallery of Florence came from Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, Director of the Museo degli Argenti at Palazzo Pitti. This museum owned a number of 18th century costumes which had originally belonged to the Museum of Ancient Tapestry and Fabric which was closed down in the 1920s. This was the starting point of a collection that has been growing through the years.
http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/costume

Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Firenze
Located on the second floor of the Spini Palace in Florence, this museum was inaugurated in 1995 by the Ferragamo family in order to showcase Salvatore Ferragamo's artistic qualities and the important role he had in the history of footwear and fashion.
http://www.salvatoreferragamo.it

Museo Stibbert, Firenze
This extraordinary 19th-century residence-museum is famous for its collection of arms and applied arts: to arms and suits of armour in time were added costumes, paintings, tapestries, furnishings and handcrafted items in an effort to document all the areas where the changing trends and the development of new manufacturing techniques stimulated the production of art work.
http://www.museostibbert.it

Museo del Tessuto, Prato
It represents both the historical past and dynamic present of the Prato district, an area which has been involved in textiles for the past 800 years and which today exports yarns, textiles and highly innovative machinery all over the world. The new museum is located in the refurbished building of the old Campolmi shearing workshop, a jewel of industrial archeology within the medieval city walls dating back to the 19th century.
http://www.museodeltessuto.it

Opificio delle pietre dure, Firenze
This museum is like a casket of precious treasures. It holds the masterpieces realized in semi-precious stones which belonged to Florence Archdukes.
http://www.opificiodellepietredure.it/

Museo della Fotografia Fratelli Alinari, Firenze
The oldest photography archive in the world and museum
http://www.alinari.it/

The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
It hosts one of the most important collections of clothing and textiles, with particular emphasis on the XXth century.
http://fitnyc.edu/3662.asp  

Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/department.asp?dep=8

Victoria & Albert Museum, London
http://www.vam.ac.uk/