New digital spaces

While under the invasion of Covid-19, the world of art was forced to close the doors of its institutions in the real world, some new digital windows began to open in which art also lived. This meant that all of us who embraced our digital devices in search of education and art, were showered with a multitude of interesting contents, primarily in the field of theater and museum offerings. It was then clear that some institutions had experienced a period of isolation ready with a fully formed digital archive. Among those giants, which presented their biggest attractions in the digital world, were the Vatican Museums, the Metropolitan Opera House, the Louvre, but also one big name from the world of fashion – VALENTINO.

Virtual museum

One of the greatest fashion designers of our time, Valentino Garavani, realized in time the magnitude of the possibilities brought by digital technologies and our relentless pursuit of virtual reality. While during quarantine various cultural institutions were racing over who would “climb” their offer on applications faster and bolder, the Valentine’s Virtual Museum was already celebrating its 8th year of existence. Fully funded by Valentino Garavani and his partner and co-founder of Valentino fashion house, Giancarlo Giametti, this virtual museum contains over seven thousand original video and photo materials, and its area in the real world would be over 10,000 m2. Following the trend of large companies, such as Gucci, which opened its museum in Florence or Dior, which has its own museum in Paris, Valentino goes a step further, with the awareness that his work will live forever only in the digital world. Collaborating with the digital agency Novacom Associes – Paris and architects Patrick Kimonot and Antonio Monfred a classic museum was created, but in a completely non-classical reality. In the spacious sunny hall, the stairs lead us to the central red figure. From there, the adventure of discovering the character and works of Valentino Garvani begins. The exhibition is divided into several categories, and everything is reminiscent of a highly stylized game, made just for fashion lovers. Numerous photographs, anecdotes, Valentine’s advice, history of creation, great inspirations and excerpts from fashion magazines for a full fifty years – all this is contained in the exhibition, whose accompanying publication would surely have thousands of pages. The very fact that over three hundred dresses are shown, their sketches and realistic 3D models confirms how much effort, commitment, precision and diligent collection and research has been put into this project. The application itself is very easy to install on your computer, and you can walk around the museum with a light click of the mouse. The map of the space is very helpful, and the speed with which you can go from topic to topic is amazing. Of course, the overall design is of high aesthetic quality with the dominant Valentino red color.

With the creation of this museum, Valentino paid tribute to his fans, but also to all lovers of fashion and art. At a time when we are increasingly moving to digital platforms, which are not free, but chargeable; when big names like Valentino are increasingly being hired to provide their information only to those who choose to subscribe via payment cards, it is a great thing to have this kind of material available for free. Just as great painters were inspired by going to museums and galleries, so such projects will serve future generations, future fashion designers. Wherever they are, through this virtual museum they will be able to learn from the best, and only when we learn from the best can we overcome them.

We invite you to dedicate some time to enjoy and virtually visit the Valentino Museum.