I led a study trip to London with some undergraduate students recently, where I spent several hours in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Having not been there for a while it was fabulous to be back in the company of old friends such as the Arts and Crafts textiles of William Morris and his contemporaries, as well as seeing exhibits new to me. I love the building too and took particular enjoyment in the flooring this time around!

I refer to Arts and Crafts patterns regularly in my teaching and was able to include some fine examples in chapter 1 of the book I’ve written, REPEAT Printed Pattern for Interiors, published by Bloomsbury earlier this year. They tend to show generosity of design, interesting rhythms and motifs working hard with stylised forms that still stand the test of time. Seeing these artefacts in the flesh really made me appreciate how important it is to get off the screen and go to see real things. The scale of the design, the surface and materiality just can’t be appreciated in the same way online. I’d also not seen Portrait of Melissa Thompson, from the series ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Kehinde Wiley. It was stunning and really impactful where it was displayed.

I was there to specifically see the Africa Fashion exhibition which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve long known of woven Kente cloth and the Asafo appliquéd flags, but it was wonderful to read and see more of the textiles for fashion, both traditional and new across the exhibition. The textile processes were broad, with fabric manipulation, weaving, printing and embellishments in abundance.

The remaining time I had at the V&A was spent enjoying the international galleries (did I mention the cake break?) where I traveled around the globe by fabric, vessels, garments and objects, enjoying making my own connections between motifs shared by people from centuries and continents apart. To juxtapose a furnishing fabric from 1878 with velvet from Turkey made in 1550, and a tapestry fragment from 400 was rather an enjoyable and fascinating afternoon’s work. I shall try to get back there with less of a lengthy gap next time!

The museum was described by the first Director, Sir Henry Cole as a “a refuge for destitute collections”. I think that’s maybe a little harsh.