I recently had the opportunity to assist curator of dress Judith Clark with the installation of the Washed Up exhibition at the Selfridges department store in London. From a curatorial perspective, it was like playing in the dressing-up box.

Washed Up is Clark’s response to the current “retail activism” taking place at Selfridges, to raise awareness of dwindling fish stocks and the plight of the World’s seas. Events are taking place for the next month to highlight the impact we are having.

Clark aims to use dress as the vehicle to highlight the influence nature, specifically the seas, has on fashion and the way we dress.

I got to dress a mannequin with an 1870s bustle-back dress (that would have been worn for a trip to the sea), to wrestle with a crinoline with a steel frame from the 1850s (that probably would have blown away if you had worn it near the sea’s winds), and a 1920s swimming suit in wool jersey (wet wool. Nice.).

I dressed an Alexander McQueen gown from the Plato’s Atlantis collection (S/S 2010). It was a real mix of eras and themes, and great fun to work on.

But, like most department stores, installation had to take place out of hours; hence, we installed from 11.30pm Monday night to 7.30am Tuesday morn.

I was well and truly washed up by then.

BDW