ABOUT ARIZONA COSTUME INSTITUTE

Phoenix Art Museum is one of few art institutions in the United States that continually collects, preserves, and exhibits works of fashion. The Museum began collecting fashion in 1966 when Arizona Costume Institute was founded to support the acquisition and preservation of garments and accessories of historical and aesthetic significance. Today, PhxArt fashion collection houses more than 9,000 objects of women’s, men’s, and children’s dress spanning the 18th century through the present and is home to three special archives: the Geoffrey Beene Archive, the Emphatics Archive, and the Ann Bonfoey Taylor Archive.

ACI Membership provides an opportunity to be in community with others who share an interest in fashion as art. Some member activities include fashion and textile programs with industry experts, visits to private collections and studios, events at local luxury fashion stores, luncheons, and cocktail receptions.

As a support group of Phoenix Art Museum, ACI provides vital resources for special exhibitions that focus on clothing both as an art form and cultural phenomenon, and underscore the significance of fashion as it relates to social and economic history. Special exhibitions are rotated regularly in the Kelly Ellman Fashion Galleries at Phoenix Art Museum, as well as travel to partnering institutions around the world.

In addition to the fashion collection of garments and accessories, The Astaire Library within the Museum’s Lemon Research Library houses a collection of books and magazines relating to fashion including extensive holdings of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Godey’s Ladies Book.