The name “costume library” hardly conveys the diversity this collection encapsulates. Illustrations and texts on garments and fashions have been gathered from all eras and regions – from stone-age clothing production methods to current runway looks and everyday fashions. Fashion design and haute couture stand on equal footing with workwear and athletic apparel, youth fashions, accessories, and folk costumes, and alongside neighboring fields, such as needlework techniques, textile technology, cosmetics and etiquette. The institution’s ambitious founders, Hermine von Parish and her mother, with whom she shares her name, worked almost maniacally in their search for mastery of this broad field.

With its five collection areas – books, fashion journals, graphics, photography, and documentation – the Von Parish Costume Library is not just one of the Münchner Stadtmuseum’s most diverse collections, but it is also internationally renowned as one of the most comprehensive specialized libraries for costume history, of which only about 20 exist worldwide.

For film and theater productions, fashion schools and designers, costume researchers, art historians or exhibition curators, the Von Parish Costume Library is a treasure trove for their special needs and detailed questions.

But the Von Parish Costume Library has even more to offer. The collection is housed in a stunning Art Nouveau villa near the Nymphenburg Palace, and with its museum-like rooms, even the building itself is an especially unique feature of the institution.

Moreover, a comprehensive family archive of Hermine von Parish’s ancestors is stored here, which dates back to the 1830s and contains documents and photographs of notable historical people, in addition to the artistic estate of her grandfather, the painter Emanuel Spitzer.