Claire Wilcox

We’ve already explored Savage Beauty, the accompanying catalogue from the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011), so it was a no brainer that we also had to pick up this catalogue, which accompanies the redux exhibition presented by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2015. Savage Beauty may have been the original presentation, and I loved the catalogue (of course), but this weighty tome was equally as good. Presented not so much as an exhibition catalogue show more (installation shots from the show are scarce and clearly not the focus) as a complete retrospective, the book collects essays that span a myriad of topics related to Alexander McQueen and his pioneering fashion career. Covering the biographical basics, McQueen’s technical expertise, presentation stylings, and the many recurring themes and motifs throughout his work, each essay is like a small jewelled window into his personality and work. These brief glimpses give us just enough information to pique interest, without becoming too intensive (as could easily be the case with an exploration of McQueen, who was as far from a shallow character as one could get), and make the book very readable and easy to access. Presented alongside a careful layout of photographs - which include historical inspirations and imagery, catwalk stills, close-ups of individual pieces, sketches, and behind the scenes photographs - which match up with the text well, we’re left with one of the best fashion tomes I’ve seen yet. I can always go for more McQueen, so do I dare I say that I was actually satisfied with this book? In this case, I’ll allow it! show less

A Life Amongst Clothes

This memoir is fragments of rememberances pieced together to let us into Wilcox's world both private and public. As a senior curator of fashion, she has lived and examined clothes intimately and uses them to let us into moments in her life which are never spelled out, merely suggested.

She started young in her parents' haberdashery and continued. There was the kimono found in the dressing up box, the way it felt and how it fitted demonstrating the type of person she show more would like to be: well-travelled and informed. There is the memory of borrowing her friend's velvet trousers to take on her confidence and charisma. Held together by safety pins because they were too big, they didn't however do the trick. When Wilcox took some velvet and violets to her friend as a thank you and acknowlegement that she now knew how to dress, she found her friend having a party to which she had not been invited.

At work there is the micro-inspection of the clothing in storage and on exhibit so that each piece is carefully catalogued with detail about its state. There are micro pleats, fragility, tiny stitches and packing everything up to move the archives. This is when pieces are found having been locked in unused toilets for years if not decades and things left on the tops of cupboards such as plaster casts of feet. All packed and relocated.

There is the love that she feels for her husband whose shirts hung on the picture rail when they were first married and there is also the loss of her son Francis. Little detail is provided and often when it is, it isn't explained so there is a visit to a remote scottish island where the concern is how to get medical help should they need it. You get the sense of them hiding out to recover but it is never said.

This is a wonderful memoir which has made me consider my clothes more carefully and what they mean to me. show less

According to the blurb for Patch Work - A Life Amongst Clothes, author Claire Wilcox has been employed as a curator for the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working career. Since visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2018, I've followed their social media channel and enjoy the behind the scenes curator videos on offer from Museum of London and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

When I saw a curator from the V&A had penned a book about her work, I imagined I'd be able to show more delve further than these documentary videos to gain insight surrounding the ins and outs of restoration and exhibition work, stitched together with some fascinating history and interesting objects. I was curious to learn about the career process involved in her line of work, and the physical toll it takes on the lucky few permitted to touch these priceless objects rich with provenance.

That would be a fascinating book indeed, but this wasn't it. I wanted to learn more about the author's career as a curator, and instead I learned more about the author herself.

The tantalising chapter headings held promise - Kid Gloves; Tapestry; Mail Order; The Skirt; Silver Thread; Production Line; Wedding Suit; Dust - but rarely delivered the expertise and hands-on experience I was after.

Patch Work - A Life Amongst Clothes by Claire Wilcox is a memoir told in very short chapters threaded through with the tools of the author's trade as a senior curator. Listening to the audiobook, the content felt personal and very much a private project for her friends and family rather than a resource for readers interested in her work, the work of the V&A Museum, or those motivated to pursue a career in her field.

Recommended for readers of memoir only. show less

As interesting as this book could have ben, I found it impossibly dull to read. The quality and pacing of the writing is so drab and unremarkable that I quit reading after only 60 pages and decided to just look at the photographs. The couture dresses are pretty much the whole point of a coffee table book like this so I don't feel bad at all!