Bags
V&A, south kensington, London

Bags: Inside Out, featured over 250 objects spanning nearly 500 years, and explored the duality of bags as both private possession and public statement.

We worked with Studio Mutt on the exhibition design to integrate lighting details to animate the objects and create micro worlds in which to view the collection. The exhibition was laid out in two halves split between floors: the ground, entered via a tunnel designed to look like a zip, represents the cavernous bag interior, while the light and airy first floor space is the exterior. Colourful stretched fabric walls line rooms and divide spaces, while screen printing on the fabric adds a layer of flat ornament. Even though objects were subject to low level lighting due to conservation requirements we were able to achieve luminous looking apertures by controlled lighting of back screens and contextual graphics.

Upstairs, the exhibition looked at the Design and Making process from sketching to sampling, sewing to selling. Large glass cabinets were clad as an imagined Parisian fashion house and an anonymous industrial building, and these elevations were lit to highlight these features while retaining primary focus on the objects inside. The ‘buildings’ were split and pulled apart to create colourful alleys, arranged as a miniature cityscape through which visitors were encouraged to wander and explore. A Making Table was lit with an integrated diffused linear source to offer shadow free illumination of the textile samples and tools.

3D Design :  Studio MUTT
2D Design : V&A Design Studio
Contractor: Setworks
Photography: FRENCH+TYE