Three mannequins dressed in fashionable clothing: two standing in dynamic poses and one seated.
Explore the galleries

Art, Design, and Fashion galleries

Discover a treasure trove of creativity in our Art, Design, and Fashion galleries. 

These beautiful galleries showcase the best of decorative art, design, fashion and style. Explore the influence of design on everyday life and see how makers continue to innovate. 

Please note that these galleries span over several floors of the museum. 

Galleries to visit

A view of mannequins in display, dressed in fashionable attire from the period in focus.

Fashion and Style

Location: Level 1

Walk your own catwalk and explore centuries of creativity and innovation in textiles and fashion. 

Spot gems by Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Jean Muir and Pringle of Scotland and try your hand at fashion design in our digital game.

Close-up of a circular glass jug within a glass museum case.

Making and Creating

Location: Level 3

Making and Creating explores the techniques and inspirations behind the work of artists, makers and designers.

Don't miss this rare artist’s proof by Picasso, designed in 1954. Worked in iridescent, black and white glass, Capra represents a small goat resting on the grass.

A piece of embroidery artwork showing several colourful birds around a fruit tree.

Design for Living

Location: Level 5

Wander up to Design for Living to discover ideas that shaped a century of design, from the Great Exhibition to the Festival of Britain.

Here you can get acquainted with May Morris’ intricate embroideries. Created to hang in Orkney’s Melsetter House, these wall hangings are a beautiful example of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Close up of a porcelain lion figure in a large glass museum case.

Art of Living

Location: Level 5

Take a trip to our Art of Living gallery to see stunning examples of decorative art as expressions of beauty, taste, power and devotion.

Sup wine from the astronomical Hamilton-Rothschild Tazza and take tea with the Emperor Napoleon’s tea service. 

Traditions in Sculpture

Location: Level 5

From earliest times sculptors have created works intended to inspire devotion, to tell stories, to commemorate individuals or to capture beauty in a lasting form. 

Traditions in Sculpture, on the balcony of Level 5, contrasts classical and Christian sculpture with those of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Image gallery

Stories from the galleries

  1. A goblet with an elaborate golden foot and a marbled bowl
    Discover

    The Hamilton-Rothschild tazza: a truly unique cup

    This tazza, or cup when translated from Italian, is truly a magnificent object.Created soley to impress people, the Hamilton-Rothschild tazza is a 'marriage' of two parts; an exceptionally large Byzantine bowl made from sardonyx (a variant…
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  2. A knee length black dress on a torso mannequin
    Discover

    100 years of the Little Black Dress

    The ‘Little Black Dress’, or ‘LBD’, first captured the fashionable imagination in the 1920s. It was radically modern and masculine-inspired, and was free from the earlier constraints on women’s dress.In 2023 National Museums Scotland…
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  3. Figure of a Surasundari or divine beauty, wearing elaborate jewellery and with dressed hair, carved sandstone.
    Discover

    Uncovering the meaning behind the beautiful Surasundari stone sculpture

    Demi-gods or Yakshinis {यक्षिणी (female of यक्ष)}At the museum we saw beautiful examples of artwork made from sandstone that have been prevalent in India since ancient times (circa 3200 BC). It was a popular building material at that time…
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Gallery accessibility

Getting to the galleries

Lifts and escalators

Lifts are available to all floors of the museum. You can check the museum map or ask a member of the Visitor Experience team for the nearest lifts. Information on lift dimensions is available on the AccessAble website.   

In the galleries

Seating

There are seating options in the Art, Design, and Fashion galleries, either in the form of permanent seats or foldable chairs. Please ask a member of the Visitor Experience team for the nearest seats. 

Lighting

The lighting levels are low in all of the Art, Design, and Fashion galleries. 

Noise

Large screens hang from the ceiling of the Art, Design, and Fashion galleries. They play videos on loop without any audio. 

Check our sensory map to explore all the different sensory experiences in different parts of the museum. 

Large print guides

Large print guides can be found in every gallery of the museum. Please remember to return them after use so that other visitors can use them. 

Facilities

Toilets

Accessible toilets and baby changing facilities are also available on most floors and there is a Changing Places (U) toilet in the Entrance Hall on Level 0.   You can access the museum map to find those nearest to you or ask a member of the Visitor Experience team. 

Cloakroom and storage

Self-service lockers are located in the Entrance Hall. The lockers come in three sizes which accommodate coats and small bags right up to small flight cases. 

There is buggy storage available in the museum. It is located on Level 1 of the Scotland galleries, behind the Kingdom of the Scots gallery.

Quiet spaces

If at any time you or someone you are visiting with finds the visit overwhelming, a member of staff can direct you to quieter areas in the museum. The sensory map also identifies the quieter spaces.

Visit our accessibility page for full access information for the National Museum of Scotland buildings. 

Further content for Art, Design, and Fashion galleries