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Virtual Couture. 3D Digital Reconstruction and Animation

The pilot project Virtual Couture. 3D digital reconstruction and animation aims to digitally reconstruct and animate 3D dress ensembles from the Kunstgewerbemuseum's fashion collection.

The one-year project is funded by the Research and Competence Centre for Digitisation Berlin (digiS). The project’s initial idea was giving access and visibility to garments, which are permanently stored in flat boxes in the depot, and to make them available for research and teaching. This approach offers the potential to integrate the 3D- digital version of the models into the presentation of the objects in the museum.

The project revolves around four previously unseen models from the collection of international fashion classics from the collectors Martin Kamer and Wolfgang Ruf acquired by the museum in 2003.

  • The cream-coloured, high-belted, floor-length chemise dress consists of two front sections and has a deep neckline that can be gathered with a tunnel band. The dress originated most likely in England in the late 18th century (1795–1800). The narrow sleeves are half-length and cover the elbows. The dress is made of white cotton batiste with interwoven stripes and embroidered with criss-crossing floral tendrils.
  • The long, sleeveless chemise dress, created around 1922 by Jeanne Lanvin, with a bateau neckline and a hip belt embroidered with glass beads, features the characteristic tubular silhouette of the time. It consists of a flowing outer dress made of salmon-coloured crepe chiffon and a narrower underdress made of crepe de chine in the same colour. The dress has two longer side panels embroidered with glass beads and five ribbons, also embroidered with glass beads, which decorate the front and back of the dress.
  • This exquisite mid-length evening cape by Gabrielle Chanel, dated around 1922, made of four layers of red and black crepe chiffon, is densely embroidered with black pin beads and longer, movable silver-coloured strings of beads in a three-dimensional, geometric pattern, which, when worn, form a striped pattern. The cape fastens loosely at the neck with the help of a yoke.
  • The black, asymmetrical, floor-length haute couture dress from the Autumn/Winter collection 1976/77 by Madame Grès is made of acetate faille. The minimalist, form-fitting dress with an empire waist and straps on one side has a balloon sleeve, the width of which is laid in small knife pleats typical of Grès, and extends into a built-in overlay that can be draped and worn in various ways. 

For the first time, these four dress models are being placed into an artistic and fashion-historical context and analysed, their creation, materials, and provenance researched and clarified. They are measured and reconstructed digitally in 3D. This includes the reconstruction of the patterns, visual representations in 360° views with and without avatars, as well as an animation that visualises the dynamics of the material and the specific properties in motion. The 3D models and pattern drawings are made available and the stages are documented in a comprehensible manner to ensure reusability.

As a result, exhibition-ready 3D reconstructions of this outstanding cultural asset from the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts that can be navigated on the web and walked through in virtual space will be made available. In this way, the textile ensembles can be made accessible beyond the otherwise short exhibition phases and beyond Berlin for the interested general public and vestimentary researcher, as well as being categorised and evaluated using supplementary image and text material.


Scientific and artistic team: Dr Katrin Lindemann, Dr Sabine de Günther, Dipl. Des. Andrea Döring
Cooperation partners: AMD Akademie Mode und Design (Department of Fashion and Design Management), University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (Department of Design)
Funding: digiS Berlin
Duration: 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024