Prato textile museum becomes Google 'We Wear Culture' partner

Florence - Three-thousand years of fashion and lifestyle history have been encapsulated in a major show with different styles that will make their debut Thursday online for Google's new project "We Wear Culture", available on the Google -Arts & Culture Platform. The initiative is the product of the cooperation with the Prato's Museo del Tessuto and over 180 cultural institutions of world renown, based in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Florence.

Cutting-edge technologies will be used for this project which seeks to explore the style and the looks of different periods in history, starting from the Silk Road, going through the sophisticated fashions of Versailles, down to the time of the British Punks or the stories behind the garments we wear today. Iconic pieces that have changed the tastes of entire generations, such as Marilyn Monroe's stilettos or Chanel's little black dress, are brought back to life thanks to Virtual Reality (VR) technologies.

A selection of fabrics from old collections on show at Prato's Museo del Tessuto, is now available online as part of the international exhibit which will be opening on Thursday, 8 June. The diverse digital shows will feature icons, movements, pioneers and trendsetters such as Alexander McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Cristobal Balenciaga, Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, Christian Dior, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Yves Saint Laurent, Manolo Blahnik, Gianni Versace, Oscar de la Renta, Pierre Balmain, Vivienne Westwood, Miyake Issey, and many more. Fashion experts, curators and designers along with university institutions, museums and NGOs from all corners of the world have been collaborating in this project to prove that fashion is part of our culture and is a form of art, as well as the product of a true craftsmanship.

Google's cutting-edge technologies, which include Virtual Reality, 360 degree-view videos, Street View tours and high-resolution 'gigapixel' images, have been utilised to preserve the collections and make them available to a larger audience. Moreover, this project will be launching the innovative Museum Street View, thus enabling the view of part of these collections of ancient fabrics, thanks to the high-resolution digitalisation of images supported by technical specifications. The stories of four iconic pieces that have changed the face of fashion are brought back to life via VR videos accessible on You Tube or with Virtual Reality viewers.