Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes

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Ha! It shouldn't surprise me that this is the topic - we are at a silent Vipassana meditation retreat, and craving is the root of suffering, and all that. But it feels like Kate's words are directed at me. I was rooting for Andrew and was pleased to see the MC make a connection with him by the end of the story. As I read the MC’s introspections on mating choice and attraction, as a contemporary woman character, I could not help but be reminded of the book “The Evolution of Desire” by anthropologist David Buss. He studies human mating strategies in contemporary culture. He observes mating preferences women have in men. In studied populations, the focus is on (1) men with resources, (2) men with high social status, (3) older men (as they often have (1) and (2)), (4) physical attractiveness (strength and height - to protect against physical danger), and (5) men who are kind and generous (so they will share (1)-(4)). Jeff may have strength/height/attractiveness, but Andrew clearly displays a great deal of kindness and generosity! Go Andrew! Excuse me," a voice whispers, and I look up to see Andrew, frazzled, a little sweat at his temples, sporting hiking clothes. I feel myself recoil. "I was supposed to have my interview with the teacher at 10:45. Do you know, is she on-time? Or did I miss it?"

I saw you run up the hill. You were crying, and I thought, well, I wanted to be available if you needed to talk. But, if you'd rather be alone, that's totally fine, I'll go. You were cruising," he ended with a smile. A wide smile graces his face, and I feel good that I did something - useful - for the first time in days. A kind deed for an insecure man.I want to thank everybody who’s been involved, everyone at PEN, everybody who loves books, all the writers I admire – I think of this great legacy of language we all share and I’m immensely touched and honoured. Thank you.’ In summary, a patchwork book which I enjoyed in pieces. I might have enjoyed it more if I was expecting a personal memoir rather than an account of a working life.

Jeff. Our breathing is synced, today. Mine slows when his does, and his does when mine does. We are like a couple who's slept together for years. I wonder if I should just reach my hand out, right now, and touch his with mine, gently. The wanting surges in my chest. And I watch it, the good yogi. Maybe our fingers would intertwine, melt together.The “blurb” about this book grabbed my attention – I enjoy memoirs, personal histories, “hidden stories” & the like so I was intrigued by the promise of stories told through a box of buttons, a forgotten pin in a hem, a mark on leather … the fact that it was written by a curator in Fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum surely meant this would be a glimpse behind the scenes, some stories of clothes within the collection – very exciting!

She decided to use objects in a “Proustian way”, as a means of exploring her past as well as the past – though for me the book is most alive when she is at work: looking “for a head” in the V&A’s mannequin store (the museum does not fit clothes to them, or alter garments at all, for which reason Wilcox often finds herself up a ladder, looking for a certain waist or breast size); examining the Delphos gowns, as fluid and as silvery as water, that Mariano Fortuny kept in his showroom in Venice a century ago and which are now housed in a mahogany drawer, coiled into fat rolls to prevent their pleats falling out; performing an audit of objects in the textile store, the smell of naphthalene (for moths) heavy in the air as she works her way through a group of top hats (kept in bags marked with a skull and crossbones because mercury was used in their making and they remain toxic). Patch Work - A Life Amongst Clothes by Claire Wilcox is a memoir told in very short chapters threaded through with the tools of the author's trade as a senior curator. Listening to the audiobook, the content felt personal and very much a private project for her friends and family rather than a resource for readers interested in her work, the work of the V&A Museum, or those motivated to pursue a career in her field.OK. That's OK." I finally say. "But, too much for me now. Can we just sit here a bit longer like we were? Quietly, again? And enjoy the snow and clean air? We don't have mountains like this in Minnesota." But my brain is fighting me with all that it has. The note is like a little beacon. I can't believe I did it. I wonder when he'll see it. I wonder if I should take it down before he does. Unfortunately, I found the book quite frustrating to read as I wanted the author to return to textiles, curation and preservation of garments and these parts felt like very brief interludes in amongst the family stories.