The Cloakroom

With a coat and a treasure map Faye Toogood transforms visitors to the V&A into custodians in search of ten variations on the overcoat theme around the museum.

With her new installation for the London Design Festival, Faye Toogood invites visitors to the V&A on a journey of discovery through the Museum’s collections, simply by checking out and wearing one of 150 coats from the Cloakroom.

Situated in the Clore Study Area in the British Galleries, a circular rail dispenses a selection of coats specially designed for the installation in Kvadrat’s Highfield, a hightech compressed-foam textile designed by Alfredo Häberli. The sense of uniformity fostered by these garments is subverted by customised mask designs painted on their backs, rendering each one simultaneously individual yet anonymous. Maps are sewn into each coat, guiding visitors to a further ten variations on the overcoat theme in diverse locations around the V&A. Each of these are specially commissioned sculptures that interpret and deconstruct specific items from the Museum’s collections.

The ten sculptures are created using different, unexpected media – ranging from studded industrial rubber to intricately carved marble – drawing on the expertise of ten British manufacturers, both well-established and up-and-coming.

Reflecting and renewing the rich history of design that surrounds them, these individual couture pieces have been hidden in the galleries ready to be discovered.