Since 2014 Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv and Google Arts&Culture cooperate successfully. On June 8th this year they presented the new virtual exhibition "Alafranga Fashion".

It was created as part of the “We Wear Culture” project that brought together 3000 years of the world’s fashion development! Google Arts&Culture implements it in collaboration with over 180 renowned cultural institutions from 42 countries.

About the exhibition:

In the "Alafranga Fashion" exhibition online visitors will be able to see the colours of Plovdiv during the Revival Period. The entering of the new European style clothing and the accessories that come with it. In other words, this is the time when the new style "Alafranga" was born, and when the Bulgarian opened for changes, wandering in search of their own identity. Everything was changing from perception and lifestyle, through clothing (top and bottom clothing) and to the smallest accessories that accompany the manner of life of the "dame" or the gentleman.

The traditional canon breaks – woman`s clothing is changing, it turns into velvet, lace or satin dress or costume. The long home dress is replaced with sheer underwear – pants with slashes and bows, strongly tightened corsets, singlets with lace shoulder-straps etc. For the first time the woman in the house is walking around in transparent clothing – "lezyos" while drinking her morning coffee which is a true revolution in the nature and moral of the people during the Bulgarian National Revival. Man’s clothing has the same fate, for a long time its elements continued to be seen in the modern costume – often could be seen fur cap or fez combined with a costume, or "poturi" with a jacket. 

The modern style "Alafranga" becomes a synonym of the striving for Europeanization and braking with the old. The new style is expressed by the incredible combination between foreign (European, oriental) and traditional clothing.

Google’s state-of-the-art technology, including virtual reality, 360° videos, Street View and ultra-high resolution "gigapixel" images were used to preserve the collections and make then available for everyone. The visitors can look trough the previous online exhibitions of Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv available HERE which are:

Virtual exhibition "Alafranga Fashion"
Virtual exhibition "Romance from the Memory Box"
Virtual exhibition "Bulgarian Folk Jewels"
Virtual exhibition "Signs of Time"

Also with the help of indoor Street View online visitors will be able to virtually walk through the museum HERE.

Angel Yankov, Director of Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv said: "We are very happy for our sustainable cooperation with Google Arts & Culture. Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv already has three virtual exhibitions presenting the treasures of Bulgarian culture, stored in the funds of our museum. "Alafranga Fashion" is the fourth one. It is a wonderful opportunity for people from all around the world to see and examine our collections. "We Wear Culture" is a wonderful project, because it allows the parallel viewing and comparison of fashion throughout the entire planet. Me and my colleagues from REM – Plovdiv are proud to present the urban fashion from Revival Period Bulgaria to the world."

The material is provided by the Regional Ethnographic Museum - Plovdiv.