Although the runway show is arguably one of the most exciting parts of the fashion industry, most of us have to be content with watching on through our phone screens, witnessing a digital rendering of what should be an IRL experience – but that’s where the fashion exhibition comes in. Probably the most democratic of all fashion events, the fashion exhibition invites us into an often exclusive world, immersing us in all the industry has to offer. Whether it’s the visual history of a culture-making magazine, the life and times of a cult figure, or a collection of poolside budgie smugglers, this season’s fashion exhibitions have something for everyone, so scroll through our pick of the best.

Fellow youth culture bible The Face is getting its very own exhibition this February, as the National Portrait Gallery brings together over 200 works from the magazine’s history. Launching the NPG’s 2025 programme, The Face Magazine: Culture Shift will feature photographs of Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue, Sade, Madonna, plus loads of other stars and fashion editorials from the mag’s pages. Bringing together the work of over 80 photographers under one roof, the exhibit is set to include industry titans like Glen Luchford, David LaChapelle, Corinne Day, Juergen Teller, Ellen von Unworth and Jean-Paul Goude, so be sure to grab a ticket.

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift is on at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 February-18 May 2025. For more information on tickets, head here.

Also in London, the life and times of legendary artist Leigh Bowery will be getting the Tate Modern treatment this year. Exploring Bowery’s legacy as a fashion designer, performer, clud kid, model and TV personality, the show will, for the first time, bring together Bowery’s explosively creative outfits made in collaboration with his wife and companion Nicola Rainbird and the corsetier Mr Pearl, while shedding light on the many ways he brought them to life via fashion photography from Fergus Greer.

Leigh Bowery! is on at the Tate Modern from 27 February-31 August 2025. For more information on tickets, head here.

Chances are you already know what this year’s Met Gala theme is, and its accompanying exhibition is set to be the most interesting one in years. Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is a historical exploration of the Black dandy, and examines how those men used their extreme devotion to style to shift identities and political possibilities from the 18th century to the modern day. Inspired by Monica L Miller’s fantastic 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, the New York exhibit will draw upon clothing, prints, photos, film and more, and is guest curated by Miller alongside long-time Met curator Andrew Bolton.

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is on at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 10 May-26 October 2025. For more info, head here.

Heading back over the pond to Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs is celebrating 35 years of the Andam Prize, the prestigious fashion award for emerging designers established in 1989. Over the years, recipients of the prize have been invited to donate pieces from their award-winning collections to the museum each year, which will form the exhibition that is now on today. Featuring a long list of established and upcoming names, designers showcased in Fashion, New Generations include Martin Margiela, Gareth Pugh, Jeremy Scott, Marine Serre, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Ester Manas, Louis-Gabriel Nouchi, Duran Lantink, Glenn Martens, and Arthur Avellano.

Fashion, New Generations: 25 Years of Andam is on at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs until 30 March 2025. For more information, head here.

If you’ve ever wanted to see Pamela Anderson’s crimson Baywatch swimsuit in the flesh, now’s your chance. Heading back to the UK capital, London’s Design Museum is bringing together that iconic piece of swimwear and more for Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style. Described as an examination of “our enduring love of water over the past 100 years”, the exhibit promises to explore all manner of aquatic fashion from the barely-there men’s Speedo boom of the 80s, one of the earliest surviving examples of a bikini designer by Louis Réard, and even the ‘mermaidcore’ microtrend of the 2020s.

Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style is on at the Design Museum from 28 March-17 August 2025. For more information, head here.

You might be surprised to hear that, in its 231-year history, the Louvre has never staged a fashion exhibition – that is, until now. The appropriately titled Louvre Couture will explore the fashion world’s relationship with the Louvre’s own collections, with a total of 65 ensembles and 30 accessories on display. But rather than have its own dedicated exhibit, the pieces with be dotted throughout the Louvre’s 9,700-square-foot Department of Decorative Arts to “highlight existing parallels” with items in the collection. Though the Louvre are keeping tight-lipped about the items on show, we know from a preview that the closing gown from Jean Paul Gaultier’s AW08 couture show will be one of the archival pieces featured.

Louvre Couture is on at the Louvre from 24 January-21 July 2025

While other museums have taken a more direct approach – with exhibitions about a single person – magazine or cultural group, The Kyoto Costume Institute has got a little more conceptual with it. Love Fashion: In Search of Myself is centred on the notion of love, and how the emotion often fuels what we wear. “The clothes that we wear embody or conceal our internal desires, and they can reveal those desires along with our longings, our passions, and the conflicts and contradictions that we face,” say the museum. “Fashion has a role as a receptacle for love… driven by those emotions, we may be motivated to wear something that we like, be inspired by someone’s look, want to be ourselves, or just want to lose ourselves.” Featuring items from the KCI’s costume collection, designers in the show include Jonathan Anderson for Loewe, Miuccia Prada, Alexander McQueen, Demna, Rei Kawakubo, Tom Ford, John Galliano, Helmut Lang and many more. Having started off at the KCI in late 2024, the exhibit will move on to two other locations in Japan this year.

Love Fashion: In Search of Myself is on at the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto until 2 March 2025 and Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery from 16 April-22 June 2025.

Heading over to Antwerp, the MoMu will be exploring the relationship between fashion and interiors through the lens of gender in an exhibition titled Fashion & Interiors. A Gendered Affair. The museum describes how, in 19th-century domestic ideology, “the lady of the house would decorate the interior with soft cushions and textures, drapes, handiwork and all manner of knickknacks,” and then goes on to say that “her body, too, was weighed down with layers of fabric and passementerie with the result that she merged with her interior, almost to the point of disappearing altogether.” Along with the interiors in the exhibition, work from contemporary designers like Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Raf Simons and Hussein Chalayan will also be on display.

Fashion & Interiors. A Gendered Affair. is on at MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp from 29 March-3 August 2025.