Bath Spa University and Fashion Museum Bath have announced a five-year partnership to develop a free digital platform for one of the world’s leading fashion collections.
Running from 2026 to 2030, the programme will support the digitisation of 80,000 objects from the museum’s collection. At least 600 items will be captured in 3D, along with digital learning tools, multimedia content, and catalogue records.
The central output will be Explore the Collection, a new platform designed to widen access to the museum’s holdings while supporting research, teaching, community involvement and creative use. The project builds on a prototype online catalogue launched earlier this year, which includes all 500 pieces from the museum’s Dress of the Year Collection.
For museums, archives, universities and digital suppliers, the partnership offers a significant example of how large-scale digitisation can be linked to a future physical reopening. Fashion Museum Bath is expected to reopen in 2030, with the digital platform planned to launch publicly at the same time.
Collection Access And 3D Capture
The scale of the project is notable. Digitising 80,000 fashion objects requires robust platform design, conservation input, rights processes, data management, photography and cataloguing. The inclusion of 3D capture for at least 600 objects also points to growing sector interest in digital surrogates that can support research, remote access, interpretation and creative production.
For fashion collections, 3D content can be particularly valuable. Garments and accessories often rely on form, texture, construction and movement for their meaning. High-quality digital capture can help researchers and learners examine details that are difficult to communicate through flat photography alone.
The programme will also bring together multimedia content and tools for learning and creative exploration. This suggests a platform model that goes beyond basic catalogue access, providing structured routes into the collection for different users, including students, researchers, makers and community groups.
Museum And University Expertise Combined
The collaboration brings together Bath Spa University’s strengths in inclusive practice, sustainability, architecture, photography, digital production, design, creative technology, and fashion, and Fashion Museum Bath’s museum experience, engagement, exhibition and curatorial.
This cross-sector structure is important for cultural organisations planning digital collection projects. Large digitisation programmes now require teams that can combine object knowledge with technical delivery, user experience design, educational planning and long-term content strategy.
The partnership will also support undergraduate and postgraduate research, project-based learning and potential future PhD study. For universities, this creates applied learning opportunities linked to a live cultural project. For the museum, it provides access to research capacity, creative skills and new forms of audience insight.
Skills, Communities And Long-Term Value
Community engagement will be a key part of the programme, with work planned across Bath and North East Somerset. The project will involve young people, students, underrepresented groups and communities with lower educational attainment across Bath and the wider region.
This focus gives the programme wider value beyond the digital platform itself. Skills development, co-creation and local participation can help cultural digitisation projects deliver social, educational and economic outcomes alongside collection access.
Delivery will begin with work on feasibility and research, which will be followed by cataloguing. Then, the development of content and the build for the platform will follow that. A beta launch is expected toward the end of 2029, before the full public launch in 2030.
For the visitor experience and cultural technology sectors, Explore the Collection will be a project to follow. It shows how digitisation can support future museum operations, widen access before a venue reopens and create new opportunities for learning, research and creative industry collaboration.
