National center for theatrical costume and design, Fashion museum in Moulins, France

The National Center of Stage Costume occupies the Quartier Villars, an 18th-century cavalry barracks on the left bank of the Allier in Moulins. Its long pale stone facade has three rows of windows, arched on the ground floor, under a dark hipped roof lined with dormers and nine chimneys, facing a gravel courtyard. Architect François Voinchet restored the building, and Jean-Michel Wilmotte added a 1,730 m² storage wing.

The Quartier Villars, a cavalry barracks built under Louis XV and named after Marshal Villars (1653–1734), was partly destroyed in World War II. Architect François Voinchet restored it for the museum, which opened on 1 July 2006 under director Delphine Pinasa (since 2011). A 1,730 m² conservation building by Jean-Michel Wilmotte was added, and in 2023 a new wing, La Scène, opened after renovations begun in 2020.

The museum's name refers to the national collection of stage costume, and its displays rotate every four months because textiles are sensitive to light, humidity and dust. The Rudolf Nureyev collection, donated by his foundation, includes 70 costumes and was shown at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2013.

The museum sits in the Quartier Villars cavalry barracks on the left bank of the Allier, facing the historic centre of Moulins. Temporary exhibitions change every four months, so the costumes on show differ from one visit to the next. The site includes a café-brasserie, a 100-seat auditorium and a 150 m² documentation centre. The 2023 La Scène wing adds 2,000 m² on theatrical scenography.

Nureyev asked in his will that his costumes form a "place of memory"; no suitable site was found in Paris, so the collection came to Moulins, about three hours from Paris by train. It includes 70 costumes plus film and photographs. A silver-blue jacket for Prince Siegfried in the 1984 Swan Lake has metallic threads flowing over the shoulders like rapids.