If you happen to find yourself at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum this summer, don’t be surprised if you see flocks of Swifties, dressed in their tour costumes and wearing stacks upon stacks of friendship bracelets, rushing through the cavernous halls of the South Kensington institution. The reason? , a new free exhibition which sees 16 of the 14-time Grammy-winning pop powerhouse’s most memorable looks – from across her music videos, tours, album covers, red carpet appearances and all 11 eras – go on display alongside instruments, awards and storyboards from her personal archive, some of which have never been seen before. Crucially though, this isn’t one of the V&A’s standalone exhibitions, but one which finds the installations dotted around the entire museum itself, with each showcase opening up a fascinating dialogue with the building’s architecture and permanent objects, and sending visitors on a thrilling treasure hunt, as they wind past Renaissance sculptures, Medieval tapestries and 18th-century paintings in search of the next Swiftian curio.
Each of the 13 stops – designed to be non-chronological, like the tour before it – features fittingly theatrical displays crafted by Tom Piper, best known for his work for the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as for , while Kate Bailey, the museum’s senior curator for theatre and performance, has overseen the whole project, seeding in Easter eggs and ensuring each chapter builds on our understanding of thi.