Story

Professor Helen Storey donates 30-year creative archive to UAL 

Written byKatie Moss
Published date 05 June 2024

Professor Helen Storey RDI, MBE | Photograph: John Ross, 2011.

Pioneering artist and designer Professor Helen Storey RDI, MBE has donated a 30-year creative archive to University of the Arts London (UAL).

The Helen Storey Foundation Archive, carefully curated and developed in collaboration with the LCF Archives team at London College of Fashion (LCF) and the Helen Storey Foundation, will preserve and celebrate Storey’s work across her influential career.

An insight into Storey’s unique life in fashion, the sizeable archive spans three decades of work. It contains career-shaping collections, such as Primitive Streak (1997) which marked the onset of Storey’s work at London College of Fashion and a change of design direction, following her years as a London-based fashion designer with her own international label, between 1984 and 1997.

Both physical and digital artifacts are displayed within the archive, from iconic fashion pieces such as “The spine column dress” to innovative projects, like Wonderland and Catalytic Clothing, which exist at the intersection of science and fashion and offer a profound insight into Storey’s influence on the evolution of the fashion industry.

I owe everything I have ever created, to the collaboration and creative companionship of others – my rough educational start in life, attuned and turned me sharply towards my inner world, which took its time to find meaningful expression – 30, or more years on, it is a huge privilege to have found a natural home to place this mass act of co creation and self-realisation; with a feeling now, that its true value lies, in giving it all away.

— Professor Helen Storey RDI, MBE

From her collaborations with Professor Tony Ryan OBE (University of Sheffield) to her recent work as UNHCR Designer in Residence in Jordan, Mozambique and Malawi, Storey’s impressive career highlights how fashion can be used to address some of the world's most significant and complex problems. From forced displacement to climate change, to reimagining plastics and how to purifying the air we breathe, Storey has continually demonstrated her innate ability to know what the world needs - and crucially, what role design can play in meeting this.

At the core of Storey's work has been deep collaboration, bringing together the worlds of fashion and science.

There have been key relationships that have made this way of working and its outcomes possible: beginning with Caroline Coates, my creative business partner of 37 years; my sister Kate, the first scientist I ever collaborated with; Professor Jim Coan, the neuroscientist; Professor John McLachlan, the biologist, and over the past 15 years, Professor Tony Ryan OBE, a Polymer Chemist from University of Sheffield, who has helped me realise the most I could ever be as a creative person.

— Professor Helen Storey RDI, MBE

Key themes within the archive highlight the designer’s pioneering approaches to sustainability, circularity, science and humanitarianism within fashion design. It will serve as a source of inspiration for the next generation of fashion creatives who will need to find ways to navigate a world we are yet to imagine.

The collection is now housed in the new state of the art LCF Archives spaces at London College of Fashion’s East Bank campus, where Storey currently works as a Professor of Fashion Science at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. The collection will be accessible by appointment for UAL’s community of students, researchers, and industry partners, as well as the public.

"We are grateful to Professor Helen Storey for this generous donation” said Elisabeth Thurlow, Senior Research Fellow and London College of Fashion Archives Manager. “Made up of around 2,000 pieces*, this living archive not only enriches our resources for researchers, students, and industry professionals but also underscores UAL's commitment to preserving and promoting the transformative power of creativity to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges."

Sarah Mahurter, Manager of the University Archives and Special Collections Centre, was involved in early discussions with Storey, to bring the Foundation's Archive into UAL. She reflects “Since the Helen Storey Foundation Archive has been in the care of LCF Archives, it has been professionally preserved and catalogued to ensure that the stories and learnings contained within the iconic pieces will remain accessible and meaningful for the future generations of fashion students.”

*Including all ‘works in progress’ across the years.