The Valentino Virtual Museum: Showcasing Five Decades of Fashion
0 
We have all heard about fashion meeting technology before, such as Alexander McQueen’s digital prints, or Hussein Chalayan’s insane fashion shows, so it seems natural to be presented with a Virtual Fashion Museum.
On the Virtual Fashion Museum site, we learn, “Valentino Garavani, legendary fashion designer, has defined a unique world of couture for almost half a century. Now his achievement takes radical new form, in keeping with the creative traditions of the house: THE VALENTINO GARAVANI VIRTUAL MUSEUM. Over 5000 documents have been installed in a spectacular 3D Palazzo. After downloading the desktop application each visitor can create their unique route through the galleries, to discover and enjoy every aspect of Valentino’s extraordinary world.”
The virtual museum is a downloadable desktop application that uses amazing 3D technology to showcase five decades of Valentino Garavani archives. This application includes over 5,000 images of dresses, illustrations, photographs, and 95 videos of his fashion shows. This application will be available for download on December 5, 2011. Since not much information has been released about the project, a press conference will be held in New York on December 5th. Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti, the honorary president of Valentino, will further discuss the project, and it will livestream to a global audience on YouTube! You can currently preview the website, and take a peek at Julia Roberts’ 2001 Oscar look, Jacqueline Kennedy’s couture Wedding Dress and Anne Hathaway’s recent red carpet looks. You can even see the meticulous fashion sketches that go on behind every single dress that Valentino has designed, and also see every ad campaign, editorial, and red carpet look that’s been published. Should the contents ever be physically displayed somewhere, about 107,000 square feet of space would be needed.
According to the Virtual Fashion Museum, “Valentino’s decision to showcase his archive online opens it up to a much wider audience, who can view it at their convenience. The designer aims not to compromise on the museum experience though, with the site designed to replicate a real gallery visit. Its content is even grouped into virtual rooms and wings. According to Valentino’s longtime business partner and collaborator on this new venture, Giancarlo Giammetti, the site even comes with “spaces [contained within the site] leading off the sunlit courtyards under the Roman sky” — meant to evoke Italy, Rome specifically, as Valentino’s epicenter.”
I can see this becoming such a huge hit, and I feel like other fashion designers will be following in Valentino’s footsteps. The fact that virtually anyone can see his works shows that fashion is not limited to only one person, and that fashion can be enjoyed by all. Will you be downloading this app once it’s released? I know I will because who knows the next time I’ll get to be up close and personal with these famous creations!?
