Lucas Jack Peter Van Schaardenburg- MA Fashion Design Technology
Lost 3D Property Office (Lo3D)
Lost 3D Property Office (Lo3D) is an online interactive archive of 3D representations of historical dress in museum collections.
Lo3D was built on the belief that dress history matters and that the current model of exhibiting dress was inaccessible and reductive. Rapid improvements in 3D scanning and modelling over the past decade have created an opportunity to adapt this technology to accurately depict dress history as 3D models, offering the public the chance to view these garment lives with deeper intimacy and customisation.
This project seeks to introduce dress history into the growing movement of 3D heritage initiatives, and address the challenges of maintaining the infrastructure and demand for accessing fashion collections stored in G.L.A.M institutes.
Lo3D was designed to meet the technical and legal guidelines needed to be professionally viable, while challenging fashion history curation and historiography through audience participation via provoking opportunities for online discussion, practical replication and physical reconstruction.
The nuance of digital interaction felt at odds with inspiring playful reflection on dress history; thus, the website's style drew heavily on 80s-90s video games and web design to evoke emotive nostalgia and set the tone for exploring the archive
My final comment as the designer of the Lost 3D Property Office is that, by offering this fresh way to engage with and reflect on fashion history and its historiography, this project may open a new wave of interest in overcoming the limitations of heritage conservation via 3D digitalisation and bridge the power divide between public and G.L.A.M to participate in historical examination of dress.
