As Taylor Swift continues her record-breaking, sold-out Eras tour across Europe, London is ready to welcome the star for a second time for a further five nights. To mark the occasion, the world’s largest museum dedicated to applied arts, the Victoria and Albert in South Kensington, has announced a 13-stop exhibition dedicated to the artist.
The Taylor Swift Songbook Trail will see items loaned to the museum from Swift’s personal archive go on display. These include customised cowboy boots, which the singer wore back at the start of her career in 2007, as well as the jet-black, Victorian-mourning-inspired dress from the video to her latest single, Fortnight.
Apart from costumes that range across Taylor Swift’s 11 music eras, there will also be storyboards, music awards, instruments, and other previously unseen items that help tell the story of Swift’s meteoric rise to fame, as well as her impact on the music industry, popular culture, and storytelling.
Rather than a typical exhibition, the curatorial board of the V&A actually opted for the whole museum to be the stage for the trail with each item appearing in dialogue with other objets d’art, as well as the architecture of the museum itself.
On the official V&A website, Kate Bailey, the Senior Curator for Theatre & Performance, said, ‘We are delighted to be able to display a range of iconic looks worn by Taylor Swift at the V&A this summer, each celebrating a chapter in the artist’s musical journey. Taylor Swift’s songs, like objects, tell stories, often drawing from art, history and literature. We hope this theatrical trail across the museum will inspire curious visitors to discover more about the performer, her creativity and V&A objects.’
The Taylor Swift Songbook Trail will open on Saturday, July 27 and run until Sunday, 8 September, with a section of it being closed to the public on Friday, August 16, due to an event. Admission to the trail is free and there is no need for prior booking.
