Perhaps the most popular vegetarian of the middle ages, semi-legendary St. Giles has had very little time to enjoy himself in heaven since his death in the first quarter of the...
Today marks the feast of Saint Fiacre (d.670). This semi-mythical 7th century Irish saint was a sort of nurse-cum-hermit who would tend to the ailments of all who visited his...
What do discarded crowns, Barcelona and Zac Efron all have in common? The answer is St. Louis of Toulouse (1274-1297). This former bishop was a holy man of impeccable saintly...
Many saints’ lives are dull affairs full of praying and fasting, proselytising and general do-gooding. St. Roch’s vita has all of these elements plus a good amount of...
Here we have another medal with another pope on it. This familiar line continues when I tell you that Sixtus II was also the immediate successor to Pope Stephen, who we covered in...
I have spent part of the morning looking at a very interesting object in the Textiles and Fashion collection. It is a manuscript, written in rhyme, by a girl named Anne Sanders...
Early Christian history can be a minefield of hyperbole and mysticism, of which the life of Pope St. Stephen I (reigned 254 – 257) is a very good example. Having your head cut...
Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) is an important figure in world Catholicism, but appears little-known in Britain, probably due to the break of the English church from papal...
This morning I oversaw an appointment for a PhD student studying some of our archaeological textiles. The glitzy, fabulous V&A might not seem the most obvious residence for...
Saint Olaf (Eng: Olave; b.995, d.1030), or to give him is full name, King Saint Olaf II Haraldsson, was King of Norway, 1015-1028. Unusually for a saint (but not necessarily for a...
Some visitors might find being presented with a hat kept inside a strong plastic bag, emblazoned with a skull-and-crossbones and the word ‘TOXIC‘ in big authoritative...
These shoes were acquired by the Museum in 1974 as part of an evening outfit, and had been displayed in 1972 with that ensemble in Cecil Beaton‘s groundbreaking V&A...
This is the inaugural post of the new-style Clothworkers’ Centre blog. If you self-identify as a Knitwit or a Fan of Fans (a fanfan), read on, and even if you would not prod a...
The Clothworkers’ Centre is home not just to tens of thousands of museum objects, but is also quarters from which they can be cared for and prepared for loan or display. ...
Although it’s only two days now until it’s time to celebrate the birth of the Saviour by wrapping pork with pork, I have found that my Christmas spirit is not what it was...
Season’s greetings! I know you’re probably all busy sitting on the Christmas cake or whatever it is you have to do, though if I may steal a few of your rested festive moments,...
If there’s one thing that working at the V&A has taught me, it’s that established systems can prove to be robust and to have great constancy. Having conceded that fact, my...
Friends have been proclaiming for weeks an infatuation with sherry; a love so regular one could rely on ones calendar to inform on its ascendancy and decline. We feel that nagging...
If you’re reading this, then you can probably guess how difficult it must be to interpret, unlock and care for the collections of the V&A. The amazing eclecticism and range...
After half a decade in the making, this week the Department of Furniture, Textiles & Fashion welcomed its first public appointments at the Clothworkers’ Centre. A...
V&A objects are not kept just within the hallowed halls of the Museum. Over six hundred objects from the Furniture and Woodwork collection are on long-term loan to other...
Some of our more contemplative readers might be interested to learn that the Clothworkers’ Centre will also be home to more than eight-hundred pattern books and swatches. The...
I covered headwear a couple of posts ago, so logically it must be time to turn our sartorially-peckish peepers to the ticklish bases of our pillars of flesh and blood and bone:...
Possibly the greatest benefit of the move to Blythe House, at least from the point of view of managing the collection, is that we are able to organise objects along more logical...
By William Newton, Assistant Curator, Furniture, Textiles and Fashion.For anyone who saw the Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones exhibition at the V&A a few years back, you...
By William Newton, Collections Management Assistant, Clothworkers' Centre for Textiles and Fashion Study and...