I loved this book. A patchwork or sketch book of memories. Beautiful snapshots and vignettes. I have bought it for several friends.

Patch Work by Claire Wilcox caught me by surprise. Professor Wilcox is the Senior Fashion Curator at the V&A Museum and I expected her book, subtitled “A Life Amongst Clothes”, to take items in the collection and explain them in detail. Nope – not even close. I don’t think I can do the book justice in this review – the beauty of the writing exceeds that of any other book I have read. A poet like Dylan Thomas or Ted Hughes could have written the sentence “The wind teased and threw twigs at my hair” and been proud of it. The book is a series of musings – Wilcox takes a moment, a memory, and shares it. Some from childhood, some from adolescence, adulthood or parenthood. Not all are about clothes – in fact very few are ABOUT clothes, although most mention clothing tangentially. Wilcox worked at the V&A but left to study at Camberwell Art School, then returned: “Although I had come full circle, I never regretted my art school years, or the meandering, the doubling back, the flourishes and folds of life.” Some memories are poignant and involve hospitals. There is an astute comparison between the museum store rooms and the hospital, “Both institutions are reminders of endings, of time creaking and shifting, of entries and exits.” And, having helped out at our local museum recently, I smiled wryly at the mention of some incredibly fragile breeches that are “impossible to mend, impossible to display, impossible to throw away”. The family had a glass-fronted cupboard into which they put the orphaned clutter that every family has: baby teeth, keys to lost locks, etc. They called it their museum. Builders were coming and everything had to be packed away. Once the cupboard was emptied, “It’s just a cupboard now. It was only a museum because we said it was.” Don’t buy this book to learn about the V&A or about clothing. Buy it to read something beautiful. #PatchWork #NetGalley

The book is called Patch Work which is clearly a reference to the author’s work in the Fashion Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum. However, what is a delight in this book is that it has been written like a patch work: patches of life; patches of memory; patches of textiles. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that this is such a wonderful combination. Clothes take on the form of their wearer, they are uniquely intimate, personal, evocative; tied up with memory and stories. So, combining life and clothes makes for a wonderful lyrical biography. The author's experience in the fashion department at such a glorious museum gives the book such a nuanced sense of her past and a sense of how special textile collections are in the description of our histories.

This book illustrates exactly how creative nonfiction can be as effective as a traditional biography, if not more so, in the act of reflecting on one’s own life. In this innovative memoir, Claire Wilcox tells the story of her life, both professional and personal, through glimpses, snatches and patches. These memories and reflections are mixed up in terms of chronology so that the reader must do a little detective work and patch together the fragments to understand which part of Wilcox’s life we are inhabiting. This structure beautifully mirrors the work that Wilcox does at the Victoria and Albert Museum, curating exhibitions, working with historic textiles, and thinking about how clothing holds meaning and tells a story, long after the wearer has left it behind. Physically patching together textiles and mentally patching together a life. I became interested in this book because I am familiar with Wilcox’s exhibitions and have been fortunate enough to see a few of them at the V&A. Although I was expecting to read more of a linear book and read more about the behind-the-scenes world of a curator at the museum, the appearance of major exhibitions or career milestones are more ephemeral and abstract rather than explored explicitly. The unexpected joy of this book is that huge exhibitions that Wilcox has curated, such as Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, are discussed with the same level of importance as the laundering of Victorian linens, the cataloging of museum archives and a mother making a dress for her daughter. As I read on, I found my expectations shifting and I enjoyed the book more and more as I came to realise the Wilcox wasn’t just showing the reader an image of herself as a curator, but also as a daughter, wife, and a mother. A biography can never fully realise a person with only ink on paper, but Wilcox has offered us a glimpse and it is a wonderful glimpse.

This book was not what I expected but it's title is perfect. There is not over much about the history of clothes and the archive. But is certainly a patchwork of random memories joined together to make an entertaining and thoughtful read. I enjoyed it as it felt like the sort of book many of us could write if we had the skill. Just memories - the sort that pop into your head in the middle of the night from the depths of one's memory. With thank to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review and e-ARC of this book.