( CNN ) -- The women 's spring 2013 runway shows have wrapped up in New York , London and Milan and Paris , previewing what 's newest and next in ready-to-wear . But a handful of fashion museums — from the Big Apple to Amsterdam to Kobe , Japan — offer year-round peeks into the history of high style . Thanks to their rotating exhibitions and permanent collections , they help visitors connect the cultural dots between the history of fashion and what 's happening now . You do n't have to be a designer-obsessed fashionista to check them out . `` Everybody from a 2-year-old child to a grandmother has a sense of the role of fashion in their lives , '' says Dr. Valerie Steele , director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology , whose New York exhibitions include `` Gothic : Dark Glamour ; '' `` Love & War : The Weaponized Woman '' and `` The Corset : Fashioning the Body . '' `` People get information about fashion from so many sources . The museum is just one more medium , but it 's outside the commercial realm . We 're not trying to sell them anything—just to inspire them . '' A history of the little black dress . Fashion museums , whether in the United States , South America , Europe or Asia , tend to specialize in certain aspects of style . In The Netherlands , Amsterdam 's Tassen Museum Hendrikje is all about bags and purses ; thanks to its namesake 's footwear roots , Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence , Italy , offers a well-heeled walk through Hollywood . Others , like The Museum at FIT ( which considers itself a `` think tank , '' Steele says ) not only stage chronological and historical exhibits and yearly symposiums , but also introduce visitors to student-created fashion collections . `` All of the time , we try to reach out to make it accessible to the general public , as well as for students , industry professionals and fashion connoisseurs , '' says Steele , a professor and author who The New York Times has called a `` High-Heeled Historian . '' `` We go the extra mile about not just showing pretty dresses , but to think about what they mean in the cultural sense . I 'm a great believer that fashion is not something superficial , but a part of our culture and history . '' First ladies ' gowns at the Smithsonian . Here 's a glimpse of the sartorial style you 'll find at 10 of the world 's top fashion museums . Click through examples of the museums ' offerings in the gallery above . Museo Salvatore Ferragamo . Florence , Italy . Housed just downstairs from the company 's flagship boutique on Florence 's ultra-chic Via dei Tornabuoni , the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo pays tribute to this legendary Italian fashion company 's products -- and the global celebrities who helped make them famous . Naples-born Salvatore Ferragamo became `` shoemaker to the stars '' in the 1920s after opening a shop in Hollywood . With rotating exhibitions like `` Marilyn '' and an impressively displayed permanent collection of Ferragamo 's iconic footwear , this museum is a must-see for the casual and footwear-obsessed fashion follower . Museo de la Moda . Santiago , Chile . Founded in 1999 by Jorge Yarur Bascuñán , a descendant of wealthy Chilean-Palestinian textile merchants , the privately funded Museo de la Moda boasts an impressive 10,000-piece collection . With pieces acquired through auctions and donations , the Museo , the only fashion museum in South America , is in the Yarur Bascuñán historic family home . Its collection , which dates back to 5 B.C. , includes the military jacket John Lennon wore during a LIFE Magazine photo shoot in 1966 and the strapless black evening gown then-Lady Diana wore in 1981 during her first public appearance after her engagement to Britain 's Prince Charles . Santiago stopover : Unlocking the secrets of Chile 's capital . The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York . The Costume Institute at the world-famous Met houses more than 35,000 costumes and accessories , a collection spanning five continents and dating back 500 years . Actress Sarah Jessica Parker narrates the Institute 's audio guide , `` Costume : The Art of Dress , '' which highlights the cultural significance of fashion throughout the ages . The museum stages at least one special exhibition each year , with recent ones including 2004 's `` Dangerous Liaisons : Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century ; '' 2006 's `` AngloMania : Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion '' and 2010 's `` American Woman : Fashioning a National Identity . '' The Museum at FIT . New York . Housed at Manhattan 's famed Fashion Institute of Technology , The Museum at FIT is known for its innovative and award-winning special exhibitions . In July , it earned accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums , the highest national recognition possible for a museum . Founded in the late 1960s , it is visited by 100,000 people each year . With a permanent collection of 50,000 garments and accessories from the 18th century to the present , the Museum at FIT places an emphasis on `` aesthetically and historically significant 'directional ' clothing , with an eye toward contemporary avant-garde fashion . Kent State University Museum . Kent , Ohio . Housed on a university campus in northeast Ohio , the Kent State Museum contains important collections of fashion and decorative arts , with eight galleries featuring rotating exhibitions of work by artists and designers . Affiliated with Kent State 's Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising , the museum gives students an up-close-and-personal look at historic and contemporary fashion and costumes from global cultures . Accredited by the American Association of Museums , Kent State 's collections span from the 17th to the 21st centuries . Kobe Fashion Museum . Kobe , Japan . `` The first museum in Japan to specialize in fashion , '' the Kobe Fashion Museum houses materials open to students , industry professionals and those working in the business of fashion . The museum 's fifth floor offers a space for young people to gather for events and entertainment , designed to promote `` a new culture of fashion in Kobe . '' The collection here not only includes garments from Asia , but also from around the world . Les Arts Décoratifs . Paris . Located in the west wing of the world-famous Louvre museum , Les Arts Décoratifs houses three museums in one : Arts Décoratifs , Publicité and Mode et Textile — and it 's this one that 's home to temporary but dramatic fashion exhibitions . The currently staged `` Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs '' traces the careers of the French-born creator of 19th-century trunks and accessories and the American designer who spent 15 years as artistic director at the house Vuitton built . With more than 81,000 works , the two-floor Mode et Textile space owns collections of design legends including Paul Poiret , Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli . Fashion Museum . Bath , United Kingdom . The English town of Bath seems an unlikely place for a museum dedicated to high style , but it has been home to the Fashion Museum ( formerly the Museum of Costume ) since 1963 . About 100,000 visitors come each year to check out its annually rotating exhibitions , guided tours and interactive displays . A bonus : family-friendly `` dressing up activities , '' in which kids can try on replica archery costumes and Victorian garb over their own clothes . Tassen Museum Hendrikje . Amsterdam , The Netherlands . With 4,000 bags , purses , trunks , pouches , cases and accessories , this Dutch museum claims to have the `` world 's largest bag collection . '' It certainly has got some of the world 's most interesting ones . Located in a traditional central Amsterdam canal house , the Tassen Museum boasts Western-style handbags dating back 500 years . Beyond hosting exhibitions of contemporary bag designers from the Netherlands and abroad , the Tassen offers bag-designing workshops , kids ' bag-decorating birthday parties , and afternoon tea in one of its elegantly decorated 17th and 18th century period rooms . ModeMuseum Province of Antwerp ( MoMu ) Antwerp , Belgium . The second-largest Belgian city is known for its sense of style and hipster cool , so it makes sense that a museum celebrating fashion is housed here . A totally renovated 19th century space is the backdrop for ModeMuseum 's thematic exhibitions , which showcase specific designers or fashion-related topics . Rather than parking items in glass cases , curators tailor the museum 's interior spaces to the feel of each exhibition , adding a larger cultural context to the fashion that 's on display . The places where masterpieces are born .
Museums around the globe offer year-round peeks into the history of high style . Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence , Italy , specializes in shoes worn by the stars . Museo de la Moda in Santiago , Chile , is the only fashion museum in South America . Tassen Museum Hendrikje in Amsterdam holds 4,000 purses , trunks and accessories .