Centuries of royal style shared online by Historic Royal Palaces

Fancy seeing up close dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth II or Princess Diana? How about the mourning clothes notoriously worn by Queen Victoria following the death of Prince Albert?

If so, the Historic Royal Palaces has uploaded to its website ultra-high-resolution photographs of the nearly 200 garments from the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection (RCDC).

Working with Google Arts & Culture, it has also used 3D scanning to show details of items that span from the 16th Century to the present day.

The RCDC contains more than 10,000 pieces of historic dress and related materials that provide an insight into the history of fashion, ceremonial traditions and life at court.

The online database was set up as the fragility of historic textiles mean they can only be displayed in exhibitions for a limited period of time – light, humidity and handling can accelerate deterioration of these pieces.

Digital imaging means they can now be studied and viewed at any time and from any location around the world.

People can also view curated digital stories and videos, with behind-the-scenes access to the collection, and an interactive landing page to explore garments by colour, time period and theme.

Matthew Storey, curator at Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), said the collaboration allowed the collection to be brought to a worldwide audience.

“Historic garments are inherently fragile and can only be displayed for limited periods of time.

“Remarkable techniques like ultra-high-resolution imaging and 3D scanning and a platform like Google Arts & Culture mean we can share the stories of these wonderful items with people all over the world.”

Amit Sood, founder and director at Google Arts & Culture, said: “Through incredibly detailed imagery and compelling storytelling, we’re bringing 200 rarely-seen iconic garments to a global audience for the first time, preserving this history for generations to come.”