Free US delivery on orders $35 or over
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
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.
Published | Nov 12 2020 |
---|---|
Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 288 |
ISBN | 9781526614384 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
In this remarkable self-portrait, fashion curator Claire Wilcox has set out mementoes of her life like objects in an exhibition. Short chapters, some only half a page, are displayed like treasures in a cabinet of curiosities . . . The result is magical . . . Her spellbinding memoir is like a cherished book of poetry, one to be dipped into over and again.
Wall Street Journal
This memoir unfolds as a series of vignettes, each one as precisely constructed as an exhibit in the Victoria and Albert Museum . . . Wilcox evokes the sensual and spiritual meaning in the fabrics we weave, wear, and leave behind.
The New Yorker
A series of exquisite meditations.
Harper's Bazaar
Filled with dreamlike memories, this autobiography is both surprising and delightful . . . A strange and mesmerising piece of work, one that tears apart the usual fabric of an autobiography.
The Sunday Times
A finely crafted memoir of luminous vignettes.
Kirkus (starred review)
A fascinating memoir . . . a textual mood board that flits dreamily from intimate childhood memories and poignant remembrances of her father . . . This intricate work enchants.
Publishers Weekly
Your School account is not valid for the United States site. You have been logged out of your account.
You are on the United States site. Would you like to go to the United States site?
Error message.