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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Object highlights
Stories from the galleries
- 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… - 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… - Discover
Developing new mannequins for our fashion displays
Our displays are evolving to reflect different bodies and to tell new stories. Find out more about our process and where we plan to go from here. - Discover
A closer look at a Korean scroll painting
In our collection we have six Korean hanging scrolls that all date from the beginning of the 20th century. This was a time of great change that marked the end of the long-running Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910) and the beginning of the…
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.