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Staatliche Museen zu Berlin participates in Google Arts & Culture’s global project about fashion

08.06.2017
Kunstgewerbemuseum

The large, virtual fashion exhibition entitled We Wear Culture brings together 3,000 years of fashion. The project by Google Arts & Culture is a collaboration with twelve German partners, including the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin plus over 180 renowned cultural institutions from around the world.

The Google Arts & Culture website and app allows users to explore the wild fashion of British punk, the history of denim or to glance behind the scenes of the Met Costume Institute. Iconic pieces that have shaped the style of whole generations – such as Marilyn Monroe’s stilettos or Chanel’s ‘little black dress’ – are brought to life with the help of virtual reality.

Over 400 individually curated, online exhibitions show icons, fashion movements, sartorial revolutionaries and trendsetters such as Marilyn Monroe, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, Vivienne Westwood and many more. Fashion experts, curators and fashion designers, as well as universities, museums and foundations from all over the world have collaborated on the We Wear Culture project in order to show, not only that fashion is an art-form and a demanding craft, but also that it is part of our culture, influencing society in diverse ways.

In total, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has participated in the project with over 400 fashion-related objects and ten exhibitions.

Exhibition at the Kunstbibliothek

• Berlin fashion photography in the 1930s

Exhibition at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen

• Code and clothing

Eight exhibitions at the Kunstgewerbemuseum

• Uli Richter Revisited: Fashion Hot Spot Berlin

• Uli Richter Revisited: Meet the Designers

• The Last Cry: Ladies Fashion in the 18th and 19th Centuries

• The Elegant: Men’s Fashion of the 18th and 19th Centuries

• Design Icons: Fashion and Style of the 20th Century

• Twelve Outstanding Creations by Balenciaga

• Behind the Scenes: Fashion in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin

• Beloved Luise

The Kunstgewerbemuseum (part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) is one of twelve German partners and contributes eight exhibitions to the project with themes such as Fashion in the 18th and 19th Centuries or Behind the Scenes of the Kunstgewerbemuseum. Millions of people from around world can experience fashion highlights such as the summer jacket-dress Escale (Yves Saint Laurent for Christian Dior, 1958) and twelve outstanding creations by Balenciaga. They can also learn more about the Fashion Hot Spot Berlin and how Uli Richter has inspired young fashion designers.

Sabine Thümmler, Director of the Kunstgewerbemuseum says, “I am delighted that our collection is not only represented through our own website, but also as part of the Google Arts & Culture project We Wear Culture. With virtual exhibitions, we can create permanent references to other groups of objects, which can be seen in other Staatliche Museen zu Berlin locations. In the Kunstgewerbemuseum, for example, we show numerous clothes and accessories in the French Rococo style. You can see how and with which hairstyles these were worn at the time, in wonderful illustrations from the Kupferstichkabinett or at our art library (Kunstbibliothek). At We Wear Culture you can view everything together.”