Fashion is an ever-evolving industry, with a long and very varied history full of all manner of trends.
And now, all of those fashion highs and lows from the past 3,000 have been brought together in one incredibly detailed online archive, providing detailed insight into the changing landscape of style.
The archive was created by Google, which partnered with more than 180 museums, fashion institutes and organizations from all over the globe to launch its We Wear Culture project, the latest step in the company’s effort to digitize human history.
Björk’s iconic fashion: Google’s We Wear culture database lets you explore fashion moments like the Maiko Takeda design Björk wore on her Vulnicura album cover (pictured)
A stunning collaboration: The tech giant partnered with with more than 180 museums, fashion institutes and organizations from all over the world to build their fashion archive
3,000 years of fashion: The project by Google Arts & Culture includes 30,000 fashion pieces which the user can search by category and time period
Google Arts & Culture has amassed a collection of 30,000 fashion pieces, with an interactive archive that lets you search for clothing items by category, like shoes and hats, and time period.
Besides immersing yourself in a database of fashion’s history, you can also access more than 450 virtual exhibits that tell the story of how we got to wear what we wear today.
Thanks to Google’s partnership with hundreds of curators, the We Wear Culture experience tells fashion stories from how the Silk Road influenced fashion to the biographies of iconic designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Vivienne Westwood.
The immersive fashion experience also includes 360-degree videos on everything from how Coco Chanel’s version of the black dress made it acceptable for women to wear black on a regular bases, to how Marilyn Monroe’s sparkling red heels became a symbol of female empowerment and sexiness.
And another aspect of the Google project lets you look at the most intricate details of garments; thanks to ultra-high resolution images, you can zoom in to the fabrics, revealing the stunning craftsmanship behind each piece.
Just zoom in: One of the project’s features lets you zoom in on ultra-high resolution images of garments like an 18th century Belgian lace (pictured)
All about history: Google aims to explore how we got to wear what we wear today by telling the history behind pieces like this ceremonial Korean robe for couturiers (pictured)
An immersive experience: The collection includes 360-degree educational videos, including one that tells the story behind Coco Chanel’s version of the black dress (pictured)
One of the garments photographed in ultra-high resolution is a 16th century bodice allegedly worn by Queen Elizabeth I.
You can also take a virtual 360-tour of the largest costume collection in the world at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Conservation Laboratory and learn how the precious objects are preserved as history for future generations.
Google also partnered with YouTube star Ingrid Nilsen, who is featured on the site dishing out her take on today’s biggest trends such as the hoodie and the choker.
The We Wear Culture project, which launched last June, was led by Kate Lauterbach, a Google program manager who, having spent time working at Conde Nast and J.Crew’s Madewell, has both a programming and fashion background.
‘We wanted to show that fashion is much deeper than just what you wear; that there’s a story behind it, there’s people behind it, there’s influences that come from art, that come from music, that come from culture more broadly; and, in turn, what we wear influences culture, she told the Business of Fashion.