MA Curating Collections and Heritage student Feyza Nur Bacak discusses lessons learned in the storeroom while on placement at Brighton & Hove Museums

When the peacock-blue velvet dress was first unwrapped in the Brighton & Hove Museums store, it looked luminous and robust from a distance. Close up, it told a more delicate story. Velvet pile, chiffon ruffles, sequin embellishment, and a cotton lace under-ruffle each asked to be handled differently. This dress became my best teacher during the placement, showing me that conservation is as much about listening, testing and documenting as it is about cleaning.

Peacock-blue velvet dress laid out for assessment, chiffon ruffles and cotton lace visible. Full-length blue velvet dress with chiffon ruffles and lace under-ruffle on a worktable. © Feyza Nur Bacak, 27.06.2025, Brighton & Hove Museums.

Why this dress is complex

Each material carries its own risks. Velvet crushes easily, touch can leave imprints if we work against the pile or linger too long in one spot. Chiffon ruffles are open-weave and locally abraded; fibres can snag with minimal pressure. Sequins and stitching are brittle in places, so vigorous brushing could dislodge them. The cotton lace traps dust deep in its structure, but wet methods risk dye run from the deep blue velvet. In short: one garment, many voices, and we needed to hear them in sequence, not all at once.

Stabilise first, then test

Before any interventive step, we set the dress on a covered workstation and prioritised preventive care. Guided by my supervisor, I prepared micro test areas to calibrate tools and handling. We used a low-suction vacuum with a mesh interface to diffuse airflow and avoid direct contact and tried graded brushes to find the gentlest tool that still lifted dust.

Open-weave chiffon over cotton lace; mould accumulation along edges prior to micro-tests. © Feyza Nur Bacak, 27.06.2025, Brighton & Hove Museums.

On the chiffon ruffles, the softest brush removed loose dust but struggled with consolidated deposits along edges. A slightly firmer, small-head brush, used at a shallow angle with minimal pressure, was more effective there. On velvet, the safest action was controlled vacuuming through mesh, always following the pile direction and never dwelling. These are small moves, but they are exactly where risk is managed.

Documentation that drives decisions

What surprised me most was how strongly documentation shaped our choices. Using the museum’s system aligned to Spectrum, the UK’s collections management documentation standard, we recorded tools, settings, test locations and outcomes. Those entries produced comparable records: it was easy to see that “Brush B + mesh-vacuum” on the inner ruffle achieved cleaning with no fibre lift, whereas “Brush A” risked snagging at gathers.

The records didn’t just log what we did; they justified why we selected the gentlest effective method. They also make the work traceable and repeatable for colleagues and keep mounting/display options open, because decision history is transparent. In practice, documentation turns the ethical principle of “do no harm” into day-to-day, auditable actions.

Sequin embellishment alongside fragile chiffon at the sleeve and neckline. © Feyza Nur Bacak, 27.06.2025, Brighton & Hove Museums.

Handling and movement

Moving the dress required as much planning as cleaning it. Velvet’s pile can crush under its own weight, so we supported folds with acid-free tissue and avoided sliding. Around sequins we reduced contact to the minimum and kept the vacuum nozzle further away, letting the mesh diffuse suction. These adjustments sound small, but they spell the difference between an object that merely looks clean and one that remains stable enough to interpret and display.

What I learned

This case reframed conservation for me. It is not about making something look new; it is about risk management and evidence-based judgement. The most effective work often happens before anyone notices, stabilising, testing, adjusting, and recording. I also saw how conservation operates across departments: with Collections for storage and condition checks, Exhibitions for display preparation and movement, and Events for object safety. With limited staff and time, prioritisation and minimal intervention are not just ideals, they are practical necessities.

Why this matters for dress

Garments are embodied and social artefacts. Preserving them protects material and meaning together. Choosing a gentle method for the chiffon ruffles wasn’t only about fibres; it safeguarded the dress’s visual language, its lightness, movement and decorative intent, so future audiences can still read it.

This peacock-blue dress made me want to stay in conservation, especially textiles. It taught me that patience, micro-tests and good records aren’t the slow part of the job; they are the job, and how fragile objects get a second chance in the gallery.

Sequin embellishment adjacent to fragile chiffon; cleaned using mesh-interface low-suction vacuum and a soft brush. © Feyza Nur Bacak, 27.06.205, Brighton & Hove Museums.

MA Curating Collections and Heritage alumna Tamlyn Smithers discusses how her studies at Brighton inform her work as manager of Rustington Museum

My Background

My museums career began when I volunteered in the Learning Offices for Royal Pavilion & Museums (RPM) in 2008 around classroom teaching. I had studied BA (Hons) Glass & Ceramics (University of Sunderland 1998), worked in arts and crafts in London and gained a PGCE Art & Design (University of Brighton, 2002).

Sector funding was particularly abundant at this time, and I maximised this opportunity by saying yes to every role I was offered. I supported the education team to develop schools’ newsletters, school handling sessions, teacher training days and the permanent Egypt Galleries including interactives and children’s audio recordings.

I rapidly moved from volunteer to casual employee, Museums Teacher, then covering Families Education Officer. In this role I delivered a Private View for the Land Girls exhibition and supported the curator in delivering family events and gallery interactives for a World War Two Exhibition. I delivered a large-scale family event: Diwali: Festival of Light with the Hindu Women’s group, managing a large team of volunteers and staff.

A later freelance role I particularly enjoyed was Collections Use Review researcher, with an aim to develop audience access at RPM. At this stage in my broad experience, I found I had capacity to engage at depth under the premise of research reporting historic use and the creative scope for future recommendations.

Master’s degree

I went on to gain my MA Curating Collections & Heritage from Brighton. Joining in the first year of the course, the pandemic meant we extended our course deadline by six months, graduating in 2022.

The course both consolidated and extended my experience and knowledge within the sector. As a neurodiverse student, I found seminars and reading materials stimulating and an opportunity to hear from other voices in subject matter as well as my colleague students, university staff and guest presenters.

At the end of 2024 I was working as a Transition Coordinator in East Sussex College. From this position it was an appropriate step for me to apply for the role of Museum Manager for Rustington Museum in West Sussex. I had attended a few interviews in the interim since graduating and was fairly experienced at this key process.

I felt ready for this role, dedicated a week to prepare, thoroughly researching my presentation on audience development. This meant I enjoyed presenting and discussing my application and the role with the interview panel. I was offered the job the same day, gladly accepted and began in January 2025.

Current vantage

Rustington Museum is overseen by Rustington Parish Council who have been entirely supportive of my endeavours. I oversee all areas of the museum. Under broader social justice and de-colonisation, my priority is community access provision.

As a micro, village museum I manage our Museum Assistant, our volunteer staff support events and keep in-touch with neighbouring museums. I follow and attend the Sussex Museums Group meetings and training and stay up to date with the sector via Association of Independent Museums (AIM) and the Museums Association (MA).

As this role is permanent, my perspective is to framework short, mid and long-term objectives. My previous experience of short-term project work means I am motivated by the scope and the sense of building the next phase of the museum. This career stage allows for me to build my own practice alongside the development of Rustington Museum.

Temporary Gallery with At Home In Rustington Exhibition April – June 2025

BA (Hons) Art History and Visual Culture student Lei Appleyard reflects on working at Liberation Art Gallery

For my placement module, I had the amazing experience of working at Liberation Art Gallery, a gallery carefully and thoughtfully run by Caroline Pendray, a licensed art therapist with a passion for making art accessible to all. I collaborated closely with a dedicated team comprised of skilled art therapists, attentive stewards, and talented resident artists, all of whom created a supportive and creative atmosphere for me to work in. The gallery itself consists of three main spaces, a main floor gallery, a workshop/gallery space, and a therapy room situated in the attic. 

During my time at the gallery, I undertook a variety of administrative tasks including answering emails, taking phone calls, dealing with enquiries about sales, and chasing up buyer details. I also had the exciting opportunity to engage directly with patrons by selling artworks, which not only honed my sales skills but also deepened my appreciation for the artists’ work. I played a role in ensuring the smooth operation of the gallery, contributing to the overall visitor experience by maintaining a welcoming and informative environment.

After completing my required hours, I made the decision to continue my involvement at the gallery, drawn in by its inclusive and nurturing community. I felt truly valued by my colleagues, which motivated me to take on more responsibilities, including volunteering myself for extra days and taking over last minute workshops when it was needed of me. I also learned about the intricate process of curating shows, managing a submissions board, and creating a shortlist of artist proposals and works that resonated with the vision of each exhibition.

In addition, I became a part of the passionate team of workshop leaders, meaning I was able to experience some of the many workshops available at the gallery, most notably running the “Paint and Sip” workshops, during which people can come along to our lovely space, and have a few hours to relax with a glass of prosecco, a paintbrush, and their friends! I stepped into the role of leading painting workshops offered at Liberation, which not only allowed me to share my creativity with others but also let me explore my aspiration of becoming an art teacher. Running and leading these workshops was incredibly fulfilling for me, and it encouraged me to consider further opportunities for leading art education initiatives in the future.

Overall, my time at Liberation Art Gallery has been extremely rewarding, and I am eager to continue my journey there for as long as possible, nurturing my passion for art and teaching within such a vibrant community. The experience was a smooth one, with only a few bumps along the way, all ones that got quickly ironed out, and any questions I had being answered as soon as I would ask them. I have enjoyed this experience more than I can put into words, I am hopeful for what this gallery continues to bring me, as well as feeling extremely thankful for the opportunities given to me by both my course leader, Harriet, who set up the placement, and also to the wonderful Caroline, who ensured I never felt lost while learning my place at this amazing gallery. 

MA Curating Collections and Heritage student Ellen Hume ambles along Brighton’s seafront in search of heritage

As part of my Heritage in a Global Context module with Eliza Tan, I took a self-guided seafront walk on a sunny Friday afternoon to immerse myself in the pilgrimage of Brighton’s long history as a seaside resort. As a new student, this is my first ever time living in Brighton, so I felt this walk would be a great way to experience the sites and well-known beachfront that is iconic to the area. My walk started at a famous landmark: Brighton Palace Pier: a vibrant space bustling with tourists and locals alike. Along my route, I was recommended to look out for key landmarks: The Madeira Arches, Volks Railway Track and the Steve Ovett Statue, but overall, the walk was to be taken at your own pace and direction. I documented my walk via note-taking and photographing the environment.

One of the first things that caught my attention was the amount of original architecture still surviving from the Victorian era! From the beginning you are immersed in the elegant, forgotten opulence of fading buildings and walkways – underneath the seafront wall are shops, cafes and businesses galore, a clash of the modern and the old-fashioned. It was interesting to see the old buildings being used for new purposes rather than left to decay and crumble, to bring new life to an already bustling area.

What is sadly decaying and crumbling are the Madeira Arches, just a couple of minutes’ walk further on. These intricate Victorian arches have been listed as a Grade 2 structure and are closed to the public due to deterioration, however local love for the arches shines through the restoration campaign with aims to restore them! As an avid history lover, it is very exciting to see locals and council come together to save such an integral part of the seafront. Signs placed by the council (across from the arches) explain more about the project, from the history of the arches, technical details and their vision for the future, as well as how you can get involved. This demonstrated to me how much love the locals have for their cultural landscape and how much it means to them, to preserve it for future generations.

Within this immediate area is the Steve Ovett statue. As I am not a local, I was interested to learn a little more about the community and discovered that this statue (a replacement for the original, that was stolen) commemorates the Brighton born Olympian on his 1980 gold medal, show of community pride and heritage. Time and weather have started to take its toll on the monument however, with the stone base becoming weathered and harder to read.

Continuing further along the walk, I encountered more tourists and locals enjoying themselves in the sunshine. Whether it was relaxing on a bench, walking dogs, meeting friends or exploring the seaside area, everyone seemed to be connecting to the area in their own way. Bygone architecture follows you along the entire walk, surrounded by the past you can’t help but wonder what it was like and if you were following in the same footsteps as a Victorian tourist? Some buildings appear to be disused, but still stand watch over the seafront as remnants of time gone by, but another interesting feature I noticed were the lampposts. Down the length of the seafront are the original lampposts, likely from the Victorian or Edwardian era, some of which have been fitted with newer lamps or left as they were; opposite these are the new modern lampposts, I found this to be an interesting contrast – an act of preservation and modernisation, keeping the old amongst the new and trying to continue the immersion.

Another feature of the seafront is the Volks Railway. I discovered this was the world’s oldest electric railway, built in 1883! It’s a stunning example of Victorian craftsmanship and continues to be a draw for tourism to this day, with 3 stops along its mile long track, which I passed on my walk. The enthusiasm and joy surrounding the attraction was evident from riders and staff, enjoying the quaint journey along the tracks, taking a step back in time to take the same route as tourists from decades ago.

The end of my walk to the Sea Lanes, Kemptown, was nearing and I began to reflect on everything I had seen. Surrounded by historical architecture and living history, I looked to the modern architecture that spanned the seafront. New business, clubs and cafes seem to be modern continuations of past practices that the seafront has been used for: exercise, health, pleasure and relaxation. After all of these years, the joy and love from this community and tourists alike has never dimmed for this beautiful area, with signs to guide you through a specific route to explore history and culture or objects dotted along walks to give you a glimpse into community history, the welcoming and vibrant feelings of the area encourage you to explore. Throughout my walk I also took photos with my polaroid camera, to try and capture Brighton through my own eyes while using an older style of documenting.

To finish my walk a took a seat on the beach to look back on the route, which took me just over an hour, and to reflect on what I had experienced. Brighton beach is truly a beautiful place to explore and I’m so glad I chose here to do my master’s degree! Heritage is all around, and the sense of a welcoming, proud community is evident in their encouragement to explore.

The walk was very enjoyable and helped me develop my investigation and fieldwork skills for my Heritage in a Global Context class, which I look forward to continuing. I also look forward to exploring more of the Brighton and Hove area, as well as its rich history and community connections!

[All photographs were taken by Ellen Hume]

MA History of Design and Material Culture student Pippy Stephenson describes her current work as volunteer coordinator at the Imperial War Museum. 

Alongside my part-time History of Design and Material Culture MA, I’ve been working as a Volunteer Team Leader (volunteer coordinator) at the Imperial War Museum. I began the role as I was going into the second year of my degree and still living in Brighton. So, the first few months involved a lot of early winter morning commutes. I moved back to London fairly promptly when I realised how unmanageable this was! But it was really exciting to have my first paid museum role after several years of volunteering in various museums such as the Garden Museum, Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft and a zero hours retail job at the Natural History Museum.

In my first year at Brighton, I’d taken Claire Wintle’s, ‘Museums in Context’ module, which introduced me to ideas of community engagement and museums as places for people, not just collections. After that I was drawn to museum roles which went some way to bringing people into museums who might otherwise feel unwelcome and in providing a sense of ownership of these institutions to local communities. Working in the volunteering department at the Imperial War Museum I’ve been able to learn more about this type of museum practice and develop my own programmes.

On a day-to-day basis my role involves providing operational and administrative support to volunteers, hosting training and development sessions as well as advocating for volunteers throughout the museum. This can mean ensuring they get tours of new exhibitions, a workshop with an expert or simply a higher cap on their expenses. Throughout the last year, I’ve worked on two programmes that sought to improve the volunteering offer at the museum. Firstly, I led a research project with a group of students from a local university, setting them the task of finding out why relatively few local people volunteer at the museum. I felt that it was important to increase the number of local people engaging as volunteers, in order to foster a closer relationship with the local community. The project lasted six weeks and resulted in the students producing a list of recommendations, one of which was to offer short-term skills based programmes in order to engage local young people.

Using this advice, I designed the IWM Summer Volunteer Programme, running from June to September. We aimed it at 18-25 year olds from South London looking for careers in heritage. The programme consists of weekly or twice weekly skills sessions with staff members throughout the museum, alongside front of house shifts. The idea was to provide an insight in a wide variety of museum roles along with practical experience, as the behind the scenes of museums can feel like a bit of a mystery. It can also be very tricky to start a career in heritage, so I hoped this experience could help those enrolled on the programme secure their next opportunity.

We had sessions with curation, operations, archives, preservation, retail, marketing, events, learning and with the Director General, among others. The feedback we gathered at the end of the programme proved that the volunteers found these sessions immensely rewarding. Alongside this, volunteers could sign up for flexible front-of-house shifts, starting out with an experienced buddy. The buddy programme at the museum has been running for several years now and it means that every new volunteer starts out by shadowing a friendly, welcoming volunteer. We had a lovely group of twelve volunteers enrolled on the programme, all but two have chosen to stay on as volunteers and we have received really positive feedback.

I’ve had a really great time working as a Volunteer Team Leader so far. Alongside studying and working, I’m also an Ambassador for the Design History Society. In that capacity I’ve written a blog post about Elephant and Castle and I’m currently working on a seminar series about utopia, which will draw upon ideas discussed in my dissertation. I was lucky enough to attend the Design History Society conference in Canterbury this year, where I had a great time on an architecture tour of the city, watching some really interesting research presentations and getting to know some new people, including my DHS colleagues. I’ve now finished my degree, so look forward to working more with our volunteers and developing in my roles at IWM and the DHS.

In the first of our new series highlighting research in University of Brighton Design Archives, third year History of Art and Design student Lizzie Collinson reviews Elizabeth Wilhide’s book Pattern Design

Fig. 1 Cover of Pattern Design with Anna Hayman’s ‘Palmprint’ pattern.

When one first looks at Pattern Design by Elizabeth Wilhide (Thames & Hudson, 2018), the use of Anna Hayman’s ‘Palmprint’ pattern on the cover (Fig. 1), gives a clue to the splendour inside. From the concise yet poetic introduction, Wilhide’s passion for patterns is evident, leaving a lasting impression on the reader as they continue on through this new publication. She notes patterns’ importance: ‘a pattern’s repeat may be so simple as a regular grid of evenly spaced dots, or as elaborate as a branching design whose diverse elements take time to tease out, where the play of foreground against background is as a complicated as a visual dance…Pattern gives pleasure’. As textile and pattern design is often an overlooked element of design history, her enthusiasm for this genre will undoubtedly influence her audience positively. Pattern Design will certainly interest social historians in addition to art historians, as Wilhide discusses the effects of industrialisation and mechanisation on wallpaper and textiles. The Industrial Revolution conjures images of soot-filled skies and mundane factory work, and so her recognition of the impact of improved technology on pattern production reveals an often overlooked side of this industrialisation.

Fig. 2 Marianne Straub, 1972. From the Design Council Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.

Wilhide draws on many collections, including the University of Brighton’s Design Archives (Figs. 2 and 3), in order to create an encyclopaedic guide of over 1,500 patterns, from eighteenth-century India, to modern day Cath Kidston.  Divided into five main chapters – ‘Flora’, ‘Fauna’, ‘Geometric’, ‘Pictorial’ and ‘Abstract’ – the reader, whether an academic or merely someone with an interest in pattern design, is able easily to locate and learn about whatever pattern they choose. The inclusion of non-Western techniques and patterns helps to deconstruct the Western-nature of art and design history discourse that many have become complacent to – the use of an eighteenth-century Sarasa Indian textile produced for the Japanese market is especially interesting, as normally the study of art history focuses on the West’s influence on the non-Western and vice versa, ignoring the interaction between distinctly different ‘non-Western’ nations and cultures.

Fig. 3 Barbara Brown, 1973. From the Design Council Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives

In addition to specific styles, designs and techniques, art movements such as Art Nouveau and Chinoiserie are described, alongside relevant artists such as William Morris. As a result, Pattern Design is exceedingly accessible, choosing to focus on the skilful artistry and rich history, rather than using the theoretical  language that art and design books and journals tend to fall into to, consequently shrinking their possible audience. The effects of pattern design on societal systems and hierarchies do not go unnoticed by Wilhide. She commends women such as Enid Marx and Sarah Campbell for their works’ influence on contemporary design.

The thematic rather than chronological ordering allows comparisons to be made between the past and present; this approach is rather refreshing considering the chronological categorisation art and design historians are more than accustomed to, particularly in gallery and museum spaces. Pattern Design is, deliberately, primarily visual and neatly ordered so that one can dip in and out at leisure. Although it is clearly factual, it is a highly pleasurable read.

Elizabeth Wilhide’s Pattern Design was published by Thames & Hudson in 2018. Find out more about the University of Brighton Design Archives here.

PhD student Elli Michaela Young introduces her research project

Fig. 1 Barrington and Teresa Young, Whitfield Town, Kingston Jamaica, circa 1950. Photographer unknown.

Jamaicans have often engaged with fashion and textiles in complex ways in order to navigate their complex social landscape. Yet Jamaica’s contribution to global fashion and textile histories and to fashion has often been overlooked, and in some cases forgotten. My PhD project, entitled ‘Fashioning Jamaica 1950-1975’, seeks to uncover hidden histories in order to tell a story about the ways that fashion and textiles have been used in the construction of Jamaican identities, both internally and externally. Part of this looks at how Jamaicans used fashion to navigate their colonial landscape. Another element looks at how the Jamaican government used fashion and textiles to construct an identity for a global fashion market in postcolonial Jamaica. I have encountered numerous difficulties researching under-represented areas such as fashion and textiles in Jamaica, which has meant I have had to redesign my project. Documents relating to the industry have not been kept, documented or have been destroyed, both in Jamaica and outside, making it difficult to fully document their contribution to global fashion. This has resulted in one of my most important research activities becoming identifying and collecting photographs that relate Jamaican fashion and Jamaican designers. This is not always an easy task and particularly when those images are held in archives outside of the UK; either in Jamaica and North America, or stored in personal family photo albums.

Fig. 2 Barrington Young, passport photograph, circa 1947.

For my project I am drawing on photography, oral histories, and life stories to help me tell the story of Jamaicans’ relationship with fashion. I was fortunate to have a father with an interest in photography and so have a collection of photographs that I have been able to use for my project. Photography was not easily accessible to many Jamaicans during the 1940s and 50s, but photography was an important part of constructing his identity. Many Jamaicans would often have their photographs taken in studios, but my father (figure 1) took photography out of the studio, carefully staging each image in specific locations. The only image I have of my father taken in a studio is his passport photograph (figure 2) taken when he was approximately 18 years of age. Barrington was not the only person in his family to use photography in this way. Figure 3 is of Barrington’s sister, Gloria Young, who was a freehand dressmaker and made all of her own clothes. She made the clothes she wears in this image. Freehand dressmaking was a popular practice in colonial Jamaica. It is a practice that allowed dressmakers creative license, allowing them to create individual one-off designs. An individuality that, for some Jamaicans, was an important part of constructing their identities. Figure 4 is of his sister Theresa, taken in the garden of the family home. The way Barrington and his sisters engaged with photography suggests they had an understanding of the power of photography in documenting their lives and controlling the way they were seen and would be remembered, particularly as these photographs are the only record of their lives during this period.

Fig.3 Gloria Young, Kingston, Jamaica, circa 1950.

As a Design Star student, I have been fortunate to receive funding for research trips to Jamaica (both from Design Star and the Design History Society), which have allowed me to visit a number of archives in Jamaica. The National Library of Jamaica and The Gleaner Archive in Kingston have been especially important to my project. Researching in locations like Jamaica is a good experience: often you may not find what you are looking for, which can disappoint, but you will find material you didn’t expect that makes you think about your research in a very different way.  What I, as British researcher, thinks of as important is not necessarily viewed in the same way as those who are Jamaican and documenting their own history, a position that has forced me to rethink my approach and to rethink entire sections of my project. Researching in Jamaica has taught me to be open to challenges, to adapt and be willing to make changes to my research in order to allow Jamaicans to speak for themselves.

Fig.4 Theresa Young, Whitfield Town, Kingston, Jamaica, circa 1950.

BA (Hons) History of Art and Design student Graham Walton on a trip to Brighton’s Embassy Court

Fig. 1 Embassy Court from the south east

Returning for our second year, I was pleased to hear that a course visit was planned to Modernist icon Embassy Court, a building I have always wanted to visit.

On arrival, we were shown into the foyer where an original mural has recently been repainted. This brightly-coloured mural is more or less the same as the original, painted when the building was new, but with odd additions such as the offshore Rampion Wind Farm, recently built off the Sussex coast.

Fig. 2 The original mural in the entrance to Embassy Court.

We were given a very informative history and tour by one of the residents. The building was designed by the famous modernist architect Wells Coates and built in 1934- 35. This was a luxury block and rich and famous tenants rented flats at a high rent (rather than owning them). The flats employed a considerable number of servants, so owners could drive down from London and a liveried flunky open your door and take your bags to your flat, where a cocktail would await you. Illustrious tenants included Viscount Astor, Max Miller, Rex Harrison and Terence Rattigan.

Fig. 3 The rear of the building.

The architecture reflects the thinking of Le Corbusier, with the use of reinforced concrete and strong horizontal lines. We were fortunate enough to be shown around one of the larger three-bed flats, which sat on the corner of the fifth floor. The owners had retained much of the original style, especially with the curved door where you enter the lounge although there was naturally a modern bathroom and kitchen. The owner explained some of the politics and problems affecting the building. After the Second World War the building continued to be a high class, luxury block, many of the flats were sold off to individual owners. The servants and the ground floor bank branch were lost and there were renovations in the 1960s. The freehold changed hands and the building was not well maintained, the leasehold association commissioned architects to upgrade the building and the expected cost was £4 million. Nothing happened to the building and it deteriorated. There was a protracted court case between the leaseholders and a company which owned many of the flats. Eventually leaseholders managed to get control of the block in 2003 and a new refurbishment plan was announced involving Sir Terence Conran. A survey showed that the building had deteriorated, originally the building had a communal hot water system, however the iron pipes encased in concrete rotted causing seepage through the concrete. New electrical heating systems were installed and the leaseholders had to pay a considerable amount of money to upgrade their flats.

Fig. 4 An interior of a corner apartment.

According to the owner we met, currently the block is very well run and has a good contingency fund for maintenance. They had to keep the original Crittal metal windows (to comply with listed building requirements) and there is still much leakage through these windows especially in winter storms. We were taken to the top floor, where there was a store room with a fascinating pictorial history of the building and to the sundeck on the top floor. We were very fortunate in being able to visit this building on such a lovely sunny day and the view from the sundeck was magnificent. The thinking behind Embassy Court was that it was to resemble a luxury ocean liner and this concept is easily imagined from the sundeck.

I thoroughly enjoyed this visit and feel very privileged to be allowed to view one of the flats. Le Corbusier would have been very proud of this building!

Fig. 5 Enjoying our visit.

Fig. 6 Enjoying our visit.

Fig. 7 Are we on an ocean liner?

Fig. 8 Great views from Embassy Court towards Rampion Wind Farm

BA (Hons) History of Art & Design student Kitty Symington reports on a course visit to Tate Modern

This winter sees the Tate Modern holding an extensive exhibition through eleven rooms consisting of Albers’ work throughout her career, from her beginnings at the Bauhaus, to her experimental pictorial weavings, through to her metaphorical ideas about material and craft. It’s a well-deserved and beautiful commemoration to such a highly influential figure in the world of textile design and modern art, and the second year History of Art & Design students were lucky enough to visit it during our Modernism module. As we entered the first room of her stimulating exhibition we were immediately confronted with Anni Albers’ giant creature of a loom. As one of the leading innovators of the Bauhaus school of the early twentieth-century, she set out to combine the ancient technique of traditional hand weaving with the abstract language of Modern design.

Fig.1. Anni Albers, Black White Yellow ,1926, re-woven 1965, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation, Tate.

A design of Albers’ that particularly interested me was one she first produced in her early Bauhaus career in 1926; it is the large wall hanging called Black White Yellow (fig.1). Here, Albers used only black, white and yellow threads, despite the appearance of multiple hues in the piece. This technique – one that she continued to use throughout her life – consisted of using different combinations of each of the colours on the warp and the weft of the loom to produce a complicated but complementary language of a variation of colours.

Albers’ initial watercolour drawings displayed in the exhibition allowed us to understand the development of her ideas: from the complex mathematical preparations on paper, through to the incredible finished products hung on the walls. Her work is, arguably, easier to appreciate once we are aware of her extensive processes; personally, I admired Black White Yellow more after considering the intellectual methods behind its alluring designs.

Fig.2. Anni Albers, panel from Six Prayers, 1966-7, The Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation, The Jewish Museum, New York.

After Black White Yellow, Anni produced a considerable collection of intricate experimental weavings. We were shown a vast sensual array of colours, textures, materials, free-flowing patterns and extravagant techniques involving the play of light and transparency. A project that was exceptionally striking was a piece called Six Prayers  from 1966-7. The Tate describes it as Albers’ most ambitious pictorial weaving, both for its metaphorical emphasis and its technical advance. Albers was commissioned by the Jewish Museum in New York to create this memorial piece to the six million Jews that died in the Holocaust. We learned that the six panels represented the six million and that, as Albers herself was from a Jewish family, the commission must have struck deep with her (fig.2 shows one panel of six). The form of the panels visually takes on the form of Torah scrolls; the complex woven patterns of the threads sculpting the delicate appearance of Hebrew scripture in a sombre manner.

Fig.3. Anni Albers, Intersecting, 1962, The Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation, New York, Tate Modern, London.

This piece illustrates the incredible affect that Albers’ designs have had on their viewers throughout the twentieth-century, and certainly the Tate’s glorifying exhibition of her career provokes such feelings today. All-in-all this exhibition was an inspirational one, and one that teased the senses; possibly the only drawback of the Tate was that we were unable to touch the beautiful textures with our grubby fingertips.

Anni Albers continues at Tate Modern until 27th January 2019.

PhD student Jenny Roberts on working on the V&A’s forthcoming Mary Quant show

Ever since studying dress history for my BA in History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton I have dreamt of working at the V&A in the Fashion and Textile department. Many years later, as a PhD student, I finally achieved this ambition as part of a funded internship courtesy of my AHRC funders, Design Star and University of Brighton. It was everything I had hoped for and more. 

Fig. 1 Daily Mirror – Wednesday 17th March 1965, p.1

For six months I worked exclusively on researching and planning the Mary Quant exhibition, due to open on 6th April 2019. Jenny Lister, one of the exhibition’s curators, has been wanting to hold a Quant retrospective for many years. The previous lack of attention is astonishing considering her market presence from the mid 1960s to the late 1970s. Although the Museum of London held ‘Mary Quant’s London’ in 1973, a full assessment of her work is timely.  The V&A’s exhibition will trace the journey of the Mary Quant brand from her original shop to a worldwide market where her name featured on clothing, hosiery, hats, spectacle frames, umbrellas, jewellery and make-up homeware, home furnishings, carpets, paints and wallpapers, and beds. Mary Quant was even used to promote Hotpoint washing machines!

From the beginning of the exhibition process, the curators wanted to steer away from preconceptions of 1960s psychedelia and to articulate a more measured appraisal of Mary Quant’s work and output. It is this narrative which will surprise and interest visitors to the exhibition when it opens.

Fig. 2 J. C. Penney’s Catalogue 1966

The Mary Quant business began as a single boutique in Chelsea, London in 1955, which had transformed into a worldwide brand by the mid-sixties. Quant recalled in her autobiography that: ‘It was utterly impossible…to envisage that within seven years the business would go well over the million mark and the clothes I was to design would be in 150 shops in Britain, 320 stores throughout America and also on sale in France, Italy, Switzerland, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, Canada and, in fact, in just about every country in the western world’.[1]

Fig. 3 Wool Jersey dress V&A T.352-1974

In 1953 Mary Quant graduated with an Art Teacher’s Diploma from Goldsmiths College, where she met her future husband, Alexander Plunkett Greene.[2] Archie McNair, who made up the team, was a qualified lawyer and photographer and owned a café in Chelsea. His legal acumen was used to their advantage when negotiating branding deals. Together they invested £10,000, a substantial amount of money in 1955, opening a boutique shop in the Kings Road. Bazaar, as the shop was named, became renowned for its playful and amusing shop window displays and became a destination shop for a growing affluent younger market. Another Bazaar opened in Knightsbridge in 1957. In 1962 Mary Quant visited America and, as a result of this visit, she began considering mass production techniques in her designs. Her involvement with American department store J.C. Penney’s was marketed to the American audience emphasising Mary Quant’s pivotal role in ‘Swinging London’ at a time when London considered ‘cool’.

Fig. 4 Mary Quant pictured wearing a jersey dress from her own collection at Buckingham Palace with her OBE award, 1966. © Getty Images

In 1963 Mary Quant launched her more affordable range under the label ‘The Ginger Group’. This range of clothing incorporated some of the mass production techniques she had learnt from her travels to America and was reflected in the design and the fabrics chosen. A film clip reveals Mary Quant’s thoughts on what she considered the time-consuming and expensive nature of haute couture. She felt that “clothes should be made by mass-production when we live in a mass-production age.”[1]There were multiple derivations of a design, like for example her ‘Banana Split’ dress made in a black jersey fabric.

These jersey dresses were easy to wear and care for, available in a rainbow of colours as well as variations of the original design. The success of the Mary Quant brand was equally due to her and Alexander’s imaginative and playful marketing as much as it was due to the circles in which they mixed. For example, before he became the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham was employed to dress Bazaar’s windows.[1] Crucially, whenever Mary Quant featured in articles or in public, she was dressed in her own designs. In 1966 Mary Quant received her OBE for services to the British fashion industry at Buckingham Palace. She was pictured in newspaper articles holding her award wearing one of her Ginger label jersey dresses. She implemented this marketing strategy even when advertising her collaborations with other manufacturers. In the advertisement for Mary Quant berets made by Kangol all the models wore jersey dresses from the Ginger Group label. Similarly, when her shoe range Quant Afoot was launched the models all wore her designs.

Fig. 5 Advert for Mary Quant’s collaboration with Kangol

I started my V&A internship when the museum had just taken delivery of the Plunkett Greene archive, which included private papers, marketing material, Daisy Dolls, Daisy Dolls’ outfits, fashion photographs and garments worn by and designed by Mary Quant. The first few weeks were spent on cold, November days in the Cloth Workers Guild at the V&A’s Blythe House photographing, dating and cataloging the previously unseen contents of the archive. From there we moved on to creating boards documenting the items held by various institutions throughout the world.

These boards were an essential visible aid in the formulation of the story of the exhibition. Thematic boards were then created and once the ‘story’ had been agreed consideration moved onto the restrictions imposed by the physical layout of the exhibition space and the display cases. One of the first problems facing all curators staging an exhibition in the V&A’s fashion galleries, is navigating display cases and available space. Without giving anything away, I feel that what is sometimes considered a problematic space has actually lent itself to the narrative of Mary Quant’s journey, from a single boutique shop to global brand.

Fig. 6 Mary Quant and models at the Quant Afoot footwear collection launch, 1967 (© PA Prints 2008)

The whole process of designing the exhibition was extremely collaborative. The team presented their ideas on the direction of the exhibition’s narrative not only to colleagues within the V&A, but also to external practitioners and academics. These meetings were constructive, with warm exchanges of ideas and knowledge. At the same time, part of the ‘Mary Quant Team’, as we had become known, researched contextual images, advertisements, stockists and articles featuring the designer in the National Arts Library’s magazine collections. Unusually, the curators Jenny Lister and Stephanie Wood decided to announce an earlier than usual call-out for the exhibition as they wanted to include stories of the impact Mary Quant had had on her generation. In particular they wanted to hear from debutantes, who had been some of Mary Quant’s early clients as this market has been overlooked in previous Mary Quant narratives. But crucially the curators wanted to understand the impact of Mary Quant’s design brand whether clothes, make-up, tights, hats or interior furnishings. The range and extent of her designs were far-reaching, and markets opened up in America, Australia, Europe and China.

My experience taught me a great deal about how to plan and carry out exhibitions. The process is similar to the PhD journey in that to begin with there is an enormous amount of what seems disparate material, which needs to be sifted through to assist in the telling of a story. This material is then edited down to form a focused narrative. Unfortunately, my internship ended before I could get heavily involved in the design of the exhibition space. Even so, I am excited to see the finished exhibition, knowing that I played a tiny part in a long over-due appraisal of the work of a designer who was responsible for disseminating the ‘London Look’ around the British Isles and across the world.

The V&A Mary Quant exhibition opens Saturday 6^thApril, 2019. The book that accompanies the exhibition, Mary Quant by Jenny Lister (London: V&A), will be published on 25^th March 2019.

Bibliography

Beatrice Behlen, A Fashionable History of the King’s Road. London: Unicorn, 2017. Print.

Breward, Christopher, Fashioning London: Clothing and the Modern Metropolis. London: Berg, 2004. Print.

— David Gilbert and Jenny Lister (eds), Swinging Sixties.London: V&A Publications, 2006. Print.

Booker, Christopher, The Neophiliacs: Revolution in English Life in the Fifties and Sixties. London: London: Collins, 1992. Print

Buckley, Cheryl & Hazel Clark, Fashion and everyday life: London and New York. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Print.

— and Hilary Fawcett, Fashioning the Feminine. Representation and Women’s Fashion from the Fin de Siecle to the Present. London:I.B.Tauris, 2002. Print.

Donnelly, Mark, Sixties Britain. London: Routledge 2005

Fogg, Marnie, Boutique: a ‘60s cultural phenomenon. London: Mitchell Beazley. Print.

Green, Felicity, “The mini-skirt makes its debut at Ascot….and it’s a winner”, Daily Mirror, 15 June 1966.

Kynaston, David, Austerity Britain 1945-51.London: Bloomsbury, 2007. Print.

McRobbie, Angela (ed.), Zoot Suits and Secondhand Dresses: Anthology of Fashion and Music. London: MacMillan. 1989.

Morris, Brian, An Introduction to Mary Quant’s London.London: London Museum, 1973.

O’Neill, Alistair, London – after a fashion. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2007. Print.

Quant, Mary. Quant by Quant: The Autobiography of Mary Quant. London: Headline, 2012

Wilson, Elizabeth, Adorned in dreams: fashion and modernity. London: Virago, 1985. Print

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/introducing-mary-quant

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2096184/Mary-Quant-swing-60s-gave-iconic-bob-cut–hallelujah–invented-waterproof-mascara.html

https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/0QKSHn4SqTdrLw

[1]Donnelly, Mark, Sixties Britain. London: Routledge, 2005. Print. p.92

[1]https://youtu.be/cyLa5WZ8VO4Accessed 10.10.18

[1]Ibid Locations 675-678

[2]Ibid Location 90