Claire Wilcox - the Senior Fashion curator at London's Victoria and Albert Museum discusses her new book, Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes. As the title suggests, Patch Work is a memoir. But as the conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that Patchwork is an unconventional memoir. The original storytelling method Claire conceived for this book portrays the facts of her life in an abstract manner, prompting the reader to imagine the finer details.

The writing process, Claire explains, was as much of a therapeutic exercise as a creative release. She embarked on this book in 2014. She then experienced the passing of her beloved parents and also undertook the most challenging curatorial project of her career - staging the Metropolitan Museum's blockbuster exhibition, Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty at the V&A.

Claire Wlicox has worked closely with some of the biggest names in fashion from McQueen to Vivienne Westwood and the Versace family. And along with discussing her new book, she provides a peek behind the closed doors of the V&A, its groundbreaking fashion department, where she has worked for decades. She also discusses some of the legendary professionals who elevated the museum onto the world stage including Sir Roy Strong and Valerie D. Mendes.

Related Reading

• Claire Wilcox, Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Claire Wilcox, "Who Gives A Frock?" - Valerie Mendes, Jean Muir and the Building of the National Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Fashion Theory, 8 June 2018
• Claire Wilcox & Valerie D. Mendes, 20th Century Fashion In Detail (Thames & Hudson)
• Sir Roy Strong, Splendours and Miseries, The Roy Strong Diaries, 1967 - 1987 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

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