CSM Museum & Study Collection: Richard Quinn acquisition

The CSM Museum & Study Collection is pleased to announce an exciting new acquisition by Richard Quinn.

The outfit, which consists of trousers, a silver bustier top and an impressive foiled train, was designed for and worn by Amal Clooney. Clooney, who is well-known for her work as a human rights lawyer and is wife of actor George Clooney, wore the outfit for the Met Gala in 2018. Earlier this year, the outfit also featured in the College’s exhibition Fashion: Central Saint Martins in the Lethaby Gallery. The show bought together garments, photography and drawings to explore facets of the College’s celebrated Fashion programme and was curated by BA Fashion Communication: History and Theory students in collaboration with the Museum & Study Collection.

This is the first piece by Quinn to enter the collection and it will join the work of other Central Saint Martins Fashion alumni including Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Hussein Chalyan and Katharine Hamnett. The Museum holds over 20,000 works including archive material, work by staff students and alumni, and a teaching collection which was established 100 years ago. The collection is actively used at the College in teaching and exhibitions and each year, it is added to with new graduate work and donations. We’re very excited to have this Quinn piece enter the collection and hope it will become an excellent resource to our students and the public.

Quinn is a true Central Saint Martins alumni – completing his foundation, BA in Fashion Print and MA all at the College. In his final undergraduate year, his talent was spotted by the Stella McCartney Foundation and he was awarded a scholarship which funded his MA. Since his time at Central Saint Martins, Quinn has won a number of awards and prizes and his own brand label has gone from strength to strength. He even won the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in 2018. Quinn is known for his intricate floral designs – as seen in this outfit, printed on a foil fabric. It was created in collaboration with Epson Europe, and we are very grateful to them for donating the work to the collection.