China's First Costume Museum

The Ningbo Costume Museum is a large-scale museum highlighting Chinese habilatory culture and costume development and also the first specialized costume museum in China.

Ningbo City of Zhejiang Province was home to the Fengbang Tailors in Chinese history, and now has developed into a "City of Costume". Many brands of fashion, such as Firs, Youngor, Romon, Yeeshow, Laok and so on, have become household names.

Surrounded by freshly spray-painted brick walls, the renovated museum with an area of more than 3,600 square meters stands on the northern bank of Moon Lake, embraced by lush trees and water.

The museum displays over 2,000 pieces of clothing which are all historical treasures, represents significant historical scenes, introduces genesis of costume in Ningbo, development of Hongbang Tailors (an outstanding branch of Western suit design), and exhibits historical books about the emergence and development of Chinese costume in modern times and present-day, greatly demonstrating the essence of Chinese habilatory culture.

The museum also arranges vivid traditional scenes of bridal chamber of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), cap shop, shoe shop, silkworm raising, weaving, printing and dyeing, etc., including workshops of Baohu Tailors, Benbang Tailors and Hongbang Tailors and so on.

Historical materials concerning the first Yat-sen Uniform made by Sun Yat-sen, the Mao Suit made for Chairman Mao Zedong, the western-style suit worn by Premier Zhou Enlai are also collected in the museum.