The collections include textiles, crochet lace, garments and accessories, trimmings, and handmade furnishings manufactured mainly in Europe, especially in France and Italy, but also Asia and Africa. With almost 4,000 inventory numbers, this is one of the biggest collections of its kind in Italy. The oldest textiles are Coptic fragments from the digs at Antinoe, dating to the 6th–9th century and donated to the Museum in 1902 by Emile Guimet. The more recent works, garments and accessories, bear witness to the tailors and fashion professionals in Turin from the 20th century.
The collection was established starting in the 1880s when, under the director Emanuele Tapparelli d’Azeglio, purchases were made on the more reputable antiques market, like Alessandro Castellani, in Rome, or Salvadori, in Florence. These purchases included late medieval and Renaissance fabrics while a precious collection of Persian textiles and Ottoman velvets began to take shape. In 1887 the collection of the Museo Civico was so impressive it took part in the first major national exhibition, the Esposizione di Tessuti e Merletti held in Rome at the Museo Artistico Industriale, where the Museum presented two display cases full of fabrics from the 15th to 16th century, with 17 velvets out of a total of 28 fabrics. At this Roman event, the exceptional display case with fabrics sent from Genoa by Giovanni Battista Villa stood out, and two years later, in 1889, the Museo Civico would purchase 130 pieces from Villa. The velvet fabrics (around 320) are, still today, one of the most significant parts of the collection.
