Museum of Shirt-manufacturing and Male Fashion

The town of Argenton-sur-Creuse in central France became a centre for making men’s shirts after 1860, when Charles Brillaud opened a factory and introduced sewing-machines. At its peak 3,000 women worked in the industry locally, making products for famous brands such as Pierre Cardin and Christian Dior. The museum is in Brillaud’s factory on the bank of the river Creuse: a U-shaped complex of three and four storeys with a garden in the centre. The collections contain some 12,000 items. The exhibitions are in two parts – one about the history of men’s clothing since the Middle Ages and the other about shirt-making. A complete workshop with videos and photographs shows the stages of manufacture, from pattern-making to cutting, assembly, folding, packing and dispatch. An association to preserve the shirt-making heritage of the town was started in 1982 and the museum opened with the help of the local authority in 1993.