Communicating Fashion Through Virtual Exhibitions: 1972. Fashion, Design, History, a Case Study Carried Out at the Centro Studi Archivio della Comunicazione (CSAC) of the University of Parma

Virtual exhibitions represent an effective way of enhancing cultural heritage by allowing institutions responsible for conservation the possibility of combining historical research and documentary protection, in order to make their heritage on the Internet usable, with increasingly engaging solutions. The article first examines some significant examples of virtual exhibitions dedicated to fashion and design, highlighting the points of effectiveness regarding the enhancement of the collections, and then moves on to the description of a virtual exhibition dedicated to the year 1972 (year in which two epochal events occurred: the MoMA exhibition: Italy: The New Domestic Landscape and the birth of prêt-à-porter) and held at the Centro Studi Archivio della Comunicazione (CSAC) of the University of Parma. Through open source technical solutions (in particular the Omeka-S platform and the use of innovative standards such as IIIF) this case study is proposed as a significant element of reflection on how a series of archival documents dedicated to fashion and design can be offered in an effective and captivating way even for a non-specialist audience.