Fashion History Museum, Fashion museum in Cambridge, Canada

The Fashion History Museum houses more than 10,000 garments, textiles, and accessories from the late 18th century through contemporary designs inside a restored 1929 post office building. The spaces showcase the breadth of the collection, with objects from different countries and cultural traditions.

Founded in 2004 by Jonathan Walford, former founding curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, and Kenn Norman, the museum spent its first decade without a permanent gallery, sending exhibitions as far as Hong Kong and Bahrain. A 2013 pilot gallery in a Cambridge mall drew almost 8,000 visitors in four and a half months. In June 2015 it opened in a decommissioned 1929 post office in Hespeler, restoring the terrazzo floors and reinstating the clock above the entrance with public funding. The City of Cambridge defunded the museum in 2023 and terminated the lease in March 2025, so the collection went into storage while new premises are sought.

The museum displays changing fashion silhouettes and styles from different periods, showing how clothing reflected the values and lifestyles of each era. You can observe how cuts, fabrics, and decorations evolved as society transformed.

The Hespeler gallery closed in March 2025, when the City of Cambridge terminated the lease after defunding the museum in 2023; the collection is in storage while new premises are sought. Check the museum's own channels before travelling. The former post office opened in 1929, and the clock over the front doors was restored with public funding.

Among the more than 10,000 pieces are 1970s handbags made from cigarette packets and dresses by Hollywood designer Adrian, born Adolph Greenberg. The reputed oldest European shoe worn in North America, dated to about 1660 and said to have been worn in New Amsterdam, is also held here.