New Project From Google Arts and Culture Offers 30,000 Digitized Images and VR Films of Fashion Pieces From Archives, Museums and Others
The new project from Google Arts & Culture is named We Wear Culture.
From Google’s “The Keyword”:
More than 180 museums, fashion institutions, schools, archives and other organizations from the fashion hubs of New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, São Paulo and elsewhere came together to put three millennia of fashion at your fingertips. You can browse 30,000 fashion pieces: try searching for hats and sort them by color or shoes by time. In 450+ exhibits, you can find stories from the ancient Silk Road to the ferocious fashion of the British punk. Or meet icons and trendsetters like Coco Chanel, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent or Vivienne Westwood.
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We’ve also created virtual reality films bringing to life the stories of iconic pieces. Step inside the places where fashion history lives on YouTube or with a virtual reality viewer:
- Find out how Chanel’s black dress made it acceptable for women to wear black on any occasion (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France – 1925)
- Step on up—way up—to learn how Marilyn Monroe’s sparkling red high heels became an expression of empowerment, success and sexiness for women (Museo Salvatore Ferragamo from Florence, Italy – 1959)
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Zoom into ultra-high resolution images made with our Art Camera and see the craftsmanship in unprecedented detail, like this famous Schiaparelli evening coat, a surrealist drawing turned into a bold fashion statement. Step inside the world’s largest costume collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Conservation Laboratory in 360 degrees, and see what it takes to preserve these objects for future generations.
Direct to Google’s “We Wear Culture”
Direct to List of 183 “We Wear Culture” Partner Institutions
Learn More, Read the Complete Blog Post
More Digital Fashion
Europeana Fashion
Europeana Fashion – launched with a new look in May 2017 – brings together the digitised collections of more than 30 European public and private institutions.
Explore fashion – historical clothing and accessories, contemporary designs, catwalk photographs, drawings, sketches, plates, catalogues and videos – from museums and archives across Europe.
Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Associations and Organizations, News, Preservation, Video Recordings

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.