Fashion and Textile Museum
Legorreta + Legorreta

February 24, 2005 /

London, United Kingdom

Photo courtesy FTM

The Fashion and Textile Museum, located in a former cash-and-carry warehouse in Bermondsey, exhibits contemporary fashion and textile design over the past fifty years.

The museum, the brainchild of designer Zandra Rhodes, is London's first museum dedicated to the global fashion industry.

Bermondsey is a former industrial district in London's South Bank area that, after decades of neglect, is flourishing both culturally and commercially. The area, dubbed the cultural corridor, includes the Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre, and the Design Museum, as well as galleries, artist's studios, bars and restaurants.

The design by Ricardo and Victor Legorreta brings a bold splash of colors, bright pink and orange, into the otherwise drab London street.

Photo: arcspace

The warehouse conversion includes the exhibition space, a textile studio, a printing workshop, a café and shop, and private quarters on the two upper floors.

Using color to reinvent and dramatize the building Legorreta paints the stucco facade, pulled back from the streetline, a burnt orange and the entrance to the museum, a tall, narrow doorway pulled out to the streetline, shocking pink. The residential floors, facing the street, are also painted shocking pink. The recessed door, leading to the private upper floors, is painted yellow.

Continuing the bright color scheme; the entrance foyer is shocking pink, the café bright yellow, and the barrel-vaulted foyer a bright blue. The marble floor in the entryway, designed by Zandra Rhodes, is inlaid with with semiprecious stones and glass.

Photo courtesy FTM

Photo courtesy FTM

Photo: arcspace

The colors in the lower exhibition area are red, pink and orange yellow. The neon-lit staircase, leading to the upstairs gallery and exhibition hall, is also painted orange yellow.

Photo: arcspace