The State Hermitage museum of St. Petersburg, Russia, is planning to stage an exhibition of world fashion next year prepared jointly with the Paris Fashion Museum, according to the Hermitage's director, Mikhail Piotrovskii.

Addressing a press conference at the Interfax news agency, he said that the exhibition will be dedicated to the history of the fashion industry, and will include historic costumes belonging to the Hermitage, as well as costumes created by such designers as Christian Dior and Nina Ricci.

He said the exhibition will be a world first, and hoped the project will be an interesting one. The exhibition is scheduled to open by the end of 2005. The State Hermitage has asked Karl Lagerfeld to curate the exhibition.