London's V&A museum has purchased a number of design objects that "mirrored society" in 2016, including a burkini, a Vote Leave leaflet, a tile from Grayson Perry's holiday house and the flag of the Refugee Olympic Team.
The items were acquired through the museum's Rapid Response Collecting programme ? a strategy for collecting objects as soon as they become newsworthy to reflect the changing way fast-moving global events influence society.
London's V&A museum has acquired a number of objects that "mirrored society" in 2016, including a burkini designed by Aheda Zanetti to encourage Muslim women to take part in sports
Each of the items, which the V&A's Corinna Gardner ? acting keeper of the design, architecture and digital department ? describes as worth "more than their material value", are now on show inside the museum's dedicated gallery. "Design is a mirror to society," said Gardner. "The objects that the V&A collects through its Rapid Response Collecting programme are evidence of social, political, technological and economic change and therefore mean more than their material value."
Another acquisition is an orange and black flag designed for the Refugee Olympic Team at Rio 2016
"These objects have become newsworthy because they advance what design can do, or because they reveal truths about how we live today and how we might live tomorrow," she continued.
The objects in question include a burk...