Today, 8 June, Google Arts and Culture launches the fashion section of its Cultural Institute virtual gallery, ‘We Wear Culture.’ The platform is a collaboration with over 180 cultural institutions from New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and other global cities to showcase over 30,000 fashion items and archive images. Both London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins are partners, and Professor Frances Corner was also asked to write an article ‘Why Fashion Matters‘ which appears on the platform home page.
The Google Arts & Culture app is free and available on the web, on iOS and Android so that LCF content can be accessed all over the world. Users can explore by institution, time period, designer, material and many other categories to use this as a resource, and the image quality plus audio, video and virtual reality makes it a truly immersive behind-the-scenes experience.
LCF has 12 exhibits, showcasing student work from design, costume, cosmetic science and business courses, as well as Fashion Space Gallery exhibitions and items from the LCF archives. Items on the platform will be integrated into the Google search function, which makes this an added opportunity to showcase student work to a global online audience.
LCF has also created Google Expeditions tours for school children. Expeditions are collections of virtual reality 360° panoramas and 3D images — annotated with details, points of interest, and questions that make them easy to integrate into curriculum already used in schools using the Google Cardboard VR headset. LCF has worked with the Golden Lane site to show making a court shoe (special thanks to Gee Lai) and with Fashion Space Gallery for the Museum of Transology exhibition, which Google will showcase to schools around the UK. Already over a million children in the UK have toured an exhibition on Google Cardboard.
To explore, go to g.co/wewearculture
#WeWearCulture
- Visit the LCF Archives
- Visit Fashion Space Gallery
- Find out more about LCF courses