Interactive History App

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Download the free app

Have you ever wondered what you would look like in Tudor or Stuart costume?

This free interactive app lets you try on the outfits and accessories of the rich and powerful of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Download the In Fine Style app, take a photo of yourself, and then try on fashionable clothes selected from the paintings in the exhibition.
The app is inspired by a rare 17th-century portrait miniature of the wife of Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, and a set of painted transparent overlays that transform the queen’s costume, hairstyle and even her gender.

The mid-17th century saw a vogue for an unusual type of miniature which could be dressed in a variety of different outfits by placing painted transparent overlays on top of the master image.

Constructed from very thin slices of the mineral mica, these overlays included outfits with appropriate accessories. When placed on top of the portrait, these semi-transparent discs transformed the costume and hairstyle of the sitter, creating a new composite picture.

Only around 45 of these miniatures with mica overlays have been recorded in museum collections across the world.