You know Dishes? The city has lived and built its fortune on fabrics, wools and the yarn industry. At least until the crisis has had a hand. However Prato is a city of textiles and the Textile Museum which was made, coincidentally, in a former textile factory, the Cimatoria Campolmi.
A beautiful example of the recovery of industrial buildings, the Textile Museum talks about Prato, its history in the sector from antiquity to today and has an interesting "didactic" section where all types of possible natural or synthetic yarns are illustrated. On the first floor there is a large exhibition space, and these days funtil next May 30th the current exhibition is called Vintage. The irresistible charm of the fabric. It traces the history of used clothes, from the glories of second hand, which came into vogue in the '60s and' 70s, to real vintage, signed by excellent designers.
Hence, the exhibition presents super-creased and vintage fashion garments, from Chanel to Balenciaga, from Valentino to Issey Miyake. There are reinterpretations of the historical garments of their own collections by Ferragamo, Gucci, Hermes, who have recreated, with few variations, shoes, bags, scarves. Admission to the exhibition costs 10 euro, but with various possibilities of reducing the 50%, for example. for those who reach Prato by train and show the ticket. The Textile Museum is located in the center, within the beautiful city walls, a few meters from the famous Emperor's Castle, the Renaissance church of Santa Maria delle Carceri and the Cathedral, with frescoes by Filippo Lippi.
If you want to stay in Prato for a few days, you can sleeping at Residence Manassei which is 5 minutes walk from the Textile Museum; mini apartments with kitchenette in a historic building starting from 55 euros per day (via Manassei 7 Prato).
