We Wear Culture is a virtual fashion show, an online archive for fans of “haute couture.” At the helm of the behemoth’s foray into fashion is Amit Sood, director of the Google Cultural Institute.
Google's Art & Culture expands to new We Wear Culture. Check out the new foray into digital art, fashion & image: https://t.co/Uu43LXqgEW
— CU ATLAS (@cuatlas) July 11, 2017
An expansion of the Google Arts & Culture project developed by Sood in 2011 that launched with high-resolution images of artwork from around the world, We Wear Culture now includes 30,000 apparel pieces uploaded from 180 cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The richly inclusive archive, ranges from a Vivienne Westwood corset decorated with François Boucher’s painting of Daphnis and Chloe, to a lace-trimmed Chanel dress from the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and a pair of Ferragamo shoes that belonged to Marilyn Monroe.
Google is leveraging its unique and comprehensive reach and troves of data to catalogue, share and curate its core search strength—not confined within walls nor limited by time—to create a virtual fashion hub.
“Cultural historians may lament the lack of critical or scholarly perspectives on popular culture, the distinct lack of other cultural points of view, and the intense focus on trends and personalities,” notes Open Culture. “But perhaps to do so is to miss the point of a project like this one—or of the fashion world as a whole. As with fine art, the stories of fashion are often all about trends and personalities, and about materials and market forces.”
Google partnered with the world’s leading fashion institutes and cultural institutions, creating content and videos including —
Victoria & Albert Museum: The shape of fashion
Museo Salvatore Ferragamo: How did the stiletto become the height of fashion?
It also showcases YouTube’s fashion vloggers with a series starring YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen unpacking fashion trends such as ripped jeans:
Sood is a convert to why fashion matters. “I would not say I was interested in fashion as a subject,” he said. “I viewed fashion as a slightly elitist area. I didn’t know who invented the black dress until Kate [Lauterbach, Google Arts & Culture program manager] told me. I definitely had to educate myself.”
He turned to experts for advice such as Andrew Bolton, head curator of the Met’s Costume Institute. Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter, cautioned Sood not to just upload photos of fashionable clothes but to visit garment workshops and talk to curators to unearth the stories that inspired the creations.
London designer Paul Smith keeps a curiosity room in his office and while meeting there told Sood, “You know, we’re in a very special room.” Sood replied, “Really? It just looks like we’re in a room with a lot of junk.” To which Smith rejoined, “Well, that’s the thing. It’s not organized. And Sood said, “Oh, I get it. It’s unstructured data.”
The archive explores over 400 stories by curators from leading institutions across the world, organized into themes including:
Legendary Designers pays tribute to fashion legends including Oscar de la Renta, Coco Chanel, Gianni Versace, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent.
Celebrity Muses explores the special relationship between designers and trendsetters such as Anna Wintour and Chanel, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn and Salvatore Ferragamo.
Black Style Icons includes the African Heritage House and models including Iman and Khadija, as well as UK’s greatest supermodel, Naomi Campbell, and the Fight for Diversity.
Spotlights feature quotes from Naomi Campbell, “I don’t think I was born beautiful. I just think I was born me.” and Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda, who said, “Look at me and tell me if I don’t have Brazil in every curve of my body.”
Next gen designers showcases the making of the 2016 Pratt Institute Fashion Design Show.
All told, the “We Wear Culture” project currently includes 759 videos, 500 digital exhibitions and 36,000 photos and garments, along with articles written by the world’s leading fashion commentators.
“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,” said Lauterbach.
Sood said he was often asked, “Why haven’t you done anything on fashion? You’ve done art. You’ve done opera. We didn’t do fashion because we didn’t understand fashion, to be very honest.”
As part of his education, Sood has visited Tokyo 14 times and come to know Japanese designers such as Chitose Abe and Junya Watanabe. He appeared in a Watanabe blazer at Google’s recent Met launch party for the We Wear Culture archive.
After studying lace, for example, Sood said, “I went out and purchased my first lace tie, because I learned lace is not actually only for women. I did a query search.”
Google’s previous fashion-centric forays include debuting Google Glass (which is now relaunching) with Diane von Furstenberg at New York Fashion Week in 2014. The following year, Google added a “collections” feature to Image Search in response to Pinterest which evolved to the latest “Style Ideas” feature that for fashion product searches, delivers results with a set of visually similar items, outfit montages, and real-life images.
Google calls the archive “three millennia of fashion at your fingertips,” and of course, it’s all eminently searchable. The “style idea” epitomizes Google’s ability to algorithmically identify and select images featuring the product in question.
As Sood summed up the archive, “It doesn’t matter if you are in fashion or not: you are by nature a part of it simply by wearing something. There is something in it for everyone.”
In an interesting sidenote, Google’s search team identified four themes driving fashion last year:
1. Kids’ clothes are growing up. With fashion magazines reporting on stylish toddlers and coveting Blue Ivy Carter’s wardrobe, parents are now looking for kid-sized versions of the latest styles. Terms like “boy,” “girl,” “baby,” and “toddler” were commonly searched along with all three of these trends. At the same time, people are searching for “adult” versions, hinting that they may have first seen the style on North West, not Kim or Kanye.
2. Gender lines are blurring. Just as kids and adults are embracing the same styles, so are men and women. Consumers are searching for bomber jackets and rompers along with gendered terms (“men,” “women,” “boys,” “girls”). “There’s a revolution going on,” said Ellen Sideri, founder of ESP Trendlab. “The characteristics of masculine and feminine are not owned by each gender, they’re owned in common. The walls are coming down.
3. One style isn’t fitting all. Consumers may be adopting these looks en masse, but they don’t want a cookie-cutter style. They’re searching for many different takes on these trends—from cropped to longline bomber jackets, tunic to body-conscious off-the-shoulder dresses, fitted to harem rompers—to get a more personalized look.
4. Fashion is getting functional. All of these styles are comfortable and fuss-free, and people are looking to wear them everywhere. Whether it’s a romper for a festival, an off-the-shoulder bikini at the beach, or a lightweight floral bomber jacket for spring, consumers are searching for items by occasions and activities. They’re both looking to adapt trends to the moment and find styles that can go anywhere. “We’re trying to accomplish things at such a rapid speed that everything is playing into function,” said Sideri.
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