Most books about historical menswear tend to use paintings as their visual representation of historical clothing. But while paintings are wonderful to share important information about fit and context, they don't tell the whole story, and at some point you'll want to see the real garments. These museums have the qualifications of having both the most comprehensive collections, the best scholarship to support the collection, and the most accessible online search engines.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Victoria & Albert Museum
Kyoto Costume Institute
None of these websites are perfect – mostly because of how challenging their search options are. Hopefully this is something that museums will start rectifying as more and more of the collections are digitized and made available to the public!
