A fishy new uniform for V&A staff

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

Exciting news from the V&A, where staff have been issued with brand new uniforms. Dreamed up by designer Christopher Raeburn, the ensemble consists of a range of ‘t-shirts, polos, crews, bomber jackets, packaway lightweight jackets and rainproof parkas’ coloured in eye-catching hues of blue and orange. 

The V&A has been keen to point out that the uniform pays its dues to the museum’s identity: the clothes are embellished with patterns based on objects in its collection, and the colour scheme ‘takes inspiration from Raphael’s The Miraculous Draught of Fishes’. Nevertheless, reactions to the new kit have been mixed:

V&A new staff uniform in collaboration with…your local garden centre? pic.twitter.com/5AzrLUIfFF

— Lela London (@lelalondon) December 20, 2017

Or darts > The V&A’s new staff uniform: inspired by Raphael or Sainsbury’s? https://t.co/Gk7KNcHHdf pic.twitter.com/9Y0lRHFryc

— Andy Hooper (@AndyHo_oper) December 20, 2017

Geography field trip circa 1997

— Elizabeth Day (@elizabday) December 20, 2017

Down at the V&A, Rakewell asked a few staff members how they felt about their new clobber. ‘It’s, uh, quite comfortable,’ one employee said – through what looked like gritted teeth…

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