I have visited the Metropolitan Museum on many occasions to visit new exhibits from all over the world and to re-visit the permanent collections over and over again. Each new person that I join in viewing the exhibits, helps me get more out of the works myself.
I have been aware of the Antonio Ratti Textile Collection and I have used their research center to explore many diffent aspects of embroidery. http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/introduction.asp?dep=20
What I just recently learned is that the The costume center is a separate collection and just as rich.
The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art houses a collection of more than 30,000 costumes and accessories spanning five continents and as many centuries. Arguably the preeminent institution of its kind in the world, the matrix of The Costume Institute collection was the Museum of Costume Art, an independent entity formed in 1937. Led by Neighborhood Playhouse founder Irene Lewisohn, the Museum of Costume Art benefited from gifts from Irene Lewisohn and her sister Alice Lewisohn Crowley, as well as from theatrical designers Aline Bernstein and Lee Simonson, among many others. In 1946, with the financial support of the fashion industry, the Museum of Costume Art merged with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Costume Institute became a department in its own right in 1959. The legendary fashion arbiter Diana Vreeland, who served as special consultant from 1972 until her death in 1989, created a spectacular suite of costume exhibitions, including “The World of Balenciaga” (1973), “Hollywood Design” (1974), “The Glory of Russian Costume” (1976), and “Vanity Fair” (1977), galvanizing audiences and setting the international standard for the opulent exhibition of costume, chiefly based on loan items.

Today, The Costume Institute's 5,000-square-feet galleries, which were refurbished in 1992, house two special exhibitions a year based on The Costume Institute's peerless collection. These exhibitions have achieved the defining stature of the earlier Vreeland exhibitions by developing a critical discourse of fashion. Exhibitions in the last decade have included "Infra-Apparel" (1993), which examined the role of undergarments and clothing’s propensity to disclose its underlying structure; "Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress" (1994); “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years” (2001), guest-curated by Hamish Bowles, European editor-at-large of Vogue; and “Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed” (2002), the debut exhibition by Harold Koda, current Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. More recently, Mr. Koda offered “Goddess” (2003), an exploration of classicism in dress; and “Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the Eighteenth Century” (2004), which was presented in The Wrightsman Galleries. Monographic exhibitions have included "Madame Grès" (1994); "Christian Dior” (1996); "Gianni Versace" (1997); and “Chanel” (2005). Since his arrival to the Museum, Associate Curator Andrew Bolton has presented three exhibitions: “Blithe Spirit: The Windsor Set” (2003); “Bravehearts: Men in Skirts” (2003); and “WILD: Fashion Untamed” (2004), an exploration of animal materials and symbolism in fashion.

No other insitution in the world has as ambitious a suite of exhibitions on fashion as The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Between exhibitions, The Costume Institute offers a docent-led tour, as well as “The Art of Dress,” a Family Guide that discusses fashion history within the context of the Museum’s vast permanent collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, armor, and textiles.

Possessing the greatest collection of costume in the world requires significant dedication to its exhibition, acquisition, interpretation, conservation, research, and education. A state-of-the-art costume conservation laboratory is adjacent to the collection, and study-storage facilities housing the collection are accessible, by appointment, to designers, design students, and qualified researchers.

The department’s Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library is one of the world’s foremost fashion libraries. Its collection includes approximately 30,000 non-circulating monographs, rare books, and periodicals, as well as design archives, sketchbooks, photographs, drawings, prints, and extensive files of clippings pertaining to the history and study of the arts of adornment throughout the world. The library maintains 50 current fashion periodical subscriptions, including a wide range of international magazines and scholarly journals.

In the fall of 2002, the Museum established the Friends of the Costume Institute, a group that supports the department’s exhibition, acquisition, conservation, and publication programs. Just as it would be impossible to imagine art in 21st-century New York without The Metropolitan Museum of Art, contemporary American and international fashion have come to rely on The Costume Institute’s touchstone sensibility toward costume exhibition and research.

Please note that the permanent collection of The Costume Institute is not on public view. See the online calendar for a schedule of upcoming special exhibitions and tours.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/department.asp?dep=8