Digital Fashion Exhibition: Salvatore Ferragamo Museum and Google Arts & Culture

Fashion exhibitions are undergoing epochal changes. Many of these transformations are the consequence of a digital era that is embracing new ways to communicate and experience fashion culture. In this scenario, digital exhibitions are emerging as an extension of physical ones, developing a valid alternative to the traditional methods of displaying items of interest. Since the eighteenth century, fashion exhibitions have evolved in their shapes and purposes, and, more recently, they continued this transformation, also starting to be present on online channels. In order to analyse this development in fashion exhibitions, this article studies the Salvatore Ferragamo Google Arts & Culture online channel, revealing the communication structure that digital fashion exhibitions can adopt. In detail, the study underlines the platform’s organisation, developed through 2D and 3D contents, virtual reality and augmented reality, explaining the logic and the significance behind them. These digital technologies divulge, in innovative ways, the genius of Salvatore Ferragamo, previously communicated only by traditional channels. In this context, tradition and innovation merge with the common purpose to spread fashion culture among people. This analysis also tries to draw attention to interactivity, accessibility and inclusivity, highlighting opportunities and challenges that the digitalisation of fashion culture could create within society.