The Red Room in the Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum.

Earlier this week legendary Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani launched the first ever virtual museum at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art with partner Giancarlo Giammetti. The presentation, which was live-streamed on YouTube was hosted by Valentino fan and actress Anne Hathaway and also included presenters Hugh Jackman, editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue Franca Sozzani and Google Art Project’s creator Amid Sood.

The museum took two years to create and is truly a masterpiece. The museum is 10,000 square metres (if it was in the physical world) and features 7 different galleries including a “Very Valentino” retrospective that features dresses from the ’60s all the way to the ’00s. You’ll find more than 5,000 images of dresses, illustrations, videos and photographs, as well as runway shows clips, plus more than 300 dresses including some worn by celebrities like Jacqueline Kennedy, Julia Roberts and Elizabeth Taylor, all of which can be viewed in 360 degrees. 

From the moment you step through the virtual doors, we can promise you’ll be wowed. The crisp white palazzo has a serene feel to it and invites you to click and explore as you navigate through the space. The sheer volume of information and detail is astounding. Thankfully you can go back time and time again without paying an entrance fee, since you can download the virtual museum for free on your desktop or iPad. We suspect this virtual museum will be a huge success and would be thrilled to see other designers taking the leap into 3D as well.

Want a preview? Take a quick tour of the Valentino Garavani Museum.