Patch Work
A Life Amongst Clothes
-
- $17.99
Publisher Description
A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR
'I am overwhelmed by this book. It is an absolute masterpiece. A book of such beauty and profundity, of such poetry in its emotion and observation ... I found my sense of life transformed by her writing as I often find it transformed after the exhibition of a great artist' LAURA CUMMING
Claire Wilcox has been a curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working life. In Patch Work, she steps into the archive of memory, deftly stitching together her dedicated study of fashion with the story of her own life lived in and through clothes. From her mother's black wedding suit to the swirling patterns of her own silk kimono, her memoir unfolds in spare, luminous prose the spellbinding power of the things we wear.
In a series of intimate and compelling close-ups, Wilcox tugs on the threads that make up the fabric of our lives: a cardigan worn by a child, a mother's button box, the draping of a curtain, a pair of cycling shorts, a roll of lace, a pin hidden in a seam. Through the eye of a curator, we see how the stories and the secrets of clothes measure out the passage of time, our gains and losses, and the way we use them to unravel and write our histories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilcox, senior curator of fashion at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, debuts with a fascinating memoir of her life and passion for clothing. Raised by a seamstress mother, Wilcox was destined for a career in fashion, and her appreciation for all things cloth is evident in her attention to details in garments: Japanese silks are "pleated into rills like the delicate underside of a field mushroom," and Frida Kahlo is described as wearing, in a self-portait, "a long green skirt with frothy white flounce that hides her legs and a loose blouse with a band of red embroidery around the neck." Wilcox eschews linear chronology to create a textual mood board that flits dreamily from intimate childhood memories and poignant remembrances of her father ("Every time he sat down a puff of dust would sigh out from the feather cushions") to penetrating character studies of style and design figures including Alexander McQueen and Kahlo. (On McQueen, she posits he expressed himself emotionally through the cut and drape of his designs.) The author's enthusiasm is apparent throughout, and where she really shines is in her poignant memories about family members and friends. This intricate work enchants.
