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55
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
15/100Critics
96/100Scholars
Author:
Claire Wilcox
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing
Date:
January 26, 2021
An exploration of a life in clothes: their memories and stories, enchantments and spells. From her mother's black wedding suit to the swirling patterns of her own silk kimono, her memoir unfolds the spellbinding power of the things we wear.
What The Reviewers Say
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, following no chronological order.
Wilcox, senior curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, has devoted her professional life to the care, protection, and exhibition of objects: a silk-lined wallet, delicately hand-stitched linen, fragile lace garments resplendent with spangles and gilt. In a captivating memoir illustrated with photographs of cherished objects, the author describes, in radiant, sensuous prose, her often painstaking tasks and her development as a curator, which began with an entry-level part-time position.
One of the ingenious aspects of Claire Wilcox’s memoir is the way in which she stitches an entire book of patches—scraps and pieces of both her own biography and the longer swathes of history—to yield a narrative arresting in its strength and elegance.
Wilcox, senior curator of fashion at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, debuts with a fascinating memoir of her life and passion for clothing.
