BIBLIO is the largest independent book marketplace in the world, with over 100 million books.

Skip to content

Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize Paperback -

by Claire Wilcox

Add to wish list

Reader reviews for Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize

From the publisher

WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE

"As skillful and oblique in its structure as the precious gowns she describes." -Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, "Best Books of the Year"


An expert and intimate exploration of a life in clothes: their memories and stories, enchantments and spells.

A linen sheet, smooth with age. A box of buttons, mother-of-pearl and plastic, metal and glass, rattling and untethered. A hundred-year-old pin, forgotten in a hem. Fragile silks and fugitive dyes, fans and crinolines, and the faint mark on leather from a buckle now lost.

Claire Wilcox has worked as a curator in Fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum for most of her working life. Down cool, dark corridors and in quiet store rooms, she and her colleagues care for, catalogue and conserve clothes centuries old, the inscrutable remnants of lives long lost to history; the commonplace or remarkable things that survive the bodies they once encircled or adorned.

In Patch Work, Wilcox deftly stitches 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 luminous prose the spellbinding power of the things we wear: their stories, their secrets, their power to transform and disguise and acts as portals to our pasts; the ways in which they measure out our lives, our gains and losses, and the ways we use them to write our stories.

Details

  • Title Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize
  • Author Claire Wilcox
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated
  • ISBN 9781526614414 / 1526614413
  • Weight 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 in (19.56 x 12.70 x 2.03 cm)
  • Themes
    • Topical: Family
  • Category Biography / Autobiography
  • Library of Congress subjects Costume, Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Dewey Decimal Code 069.092

About the author

Claire Wilcox has been Senior Curator of Fashion at the V&A since 2004, where she has curated exhibitions including The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, and is Professor in Fashion Curation at the London College of Fashion. She instigated Fashion in Motion (live catwalk events in the Museum) in 1999. She is on the editorial board of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture. She lives in London.

More Copies for Sale

Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE

Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE

by Wilcox, Claire

  • Used
  • Good
  • Paperback
Condition
Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$4.61
A$16.67 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Paperback. Good.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$4.61
A$16.67 Delivery to USA
Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE

Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE

by Wilcox, Claire

  • Used
  • Very good
  • Paperback
Condition
Very good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
3
Seller
Item price
A$4.61
A$16.67 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Paperback. Very Good.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$4.61
A$16.67 Delivery to USA
Patch Work : Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work : Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize

by Wilcox, Claire

  • Used
Condition
Used
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
2
Seller
Item price
A$10.29
A$10.29 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Used - Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$10.29
A$10.29 Delivery to USA
Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize

by Claire Wilcox

  • Used
  • Good
  • Paperback
Condition
Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$12.52
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2022. Paperback. Good. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$12.52
Free Delivery to USA
Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work: Winner of the 2021 Pen Ackerley Prize

by Wilcox, Claire

  • Used
  • Very good
  • Paperback
Condition
Very good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$12.52
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022. Paperback. Very Good. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$12.52
Free Delivery to USA
Patch Work
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work

by Wilcox, Claire,

  • Used
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
5
Seller
Item price
A$16.37
A$5.86 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
like new.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$16.37
A$5.86 Delivery to USA
Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE

by Wilcox, Claire

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
Used
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$17.40
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Bloomsbury, 2022-02-08. paperback. Used: Good. 5.05x1.00x7.75. Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$17.40
Free Delivery to USA
Patch Work
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work

by Wilcox, Claire,

  • New
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
5
Seller
Item price
A$17.62
A$5.86 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
new.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$17.62
A$5.86 Delivery to USA
Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE [Paperback] Wilcox, Claire
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE [Paperback] Wilcox, Claire

  • New
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
2
Seller
Item price
A$17.63
A$5.86 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
New.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$17.63
A$5.86 Delivery to USA
Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE [Paperback] Wilcox, Claire
Stock photo: cover may vary

Patch Work: WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE [Paperback] Wilcox, Claire

  • Used
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781526614414 / 1526614413
Quantity available
2
Seller
Item price
A$18.82
A$5.86 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Like New. 0x0x0.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$18.82
A$5.86 Delivery to USA