To coincide with the closure of the Fashion gallery from 4 May 2025 ahead of a major transformation project due for completion in spring 2027, we’re excited to be launching a new trail. The contemporary fashion trail can be experienced purely online or as a fashion-focused route around V&A South Kensington, which we expect will take around 35 minutes. It can be accessed by scanning the QR code on the hoardings soon to be installed around the Fashion gallery (in the Himalayas & South-East Asia, Sculpture and Ironwork galleries).
With this trail we’re taking the opportunity to showcase examples of the V&A’s 21st-century fashion holdings, from Britain, China, France, Japan and beyond. Whether you’re into art jewellery, iconic streetwear or showstopping stage costumes, we hope that there will be something for you. Brands, designers, artisans and wearers featured include Nike, Li Wei, Peter Chang and Dua Lipa.
The trail recognises fashion’s multilayered quality, understanding clothing and accessories as technical feats, means of self-expression, forces for change and more. It navigates themes including materials and techniques, cultural heritage, marketing and inclusivity.
We will update the trail webpage in line with changes in the galleries.
Making the contemporary fashion trail
Putting the trail together was a great excuse to spend more time in V&A South Kensington’s wonderful galleries, looking for standout objects. I also consulted with curatorial colleagues across departments, who helped with object ideas and let me know about upcoming display changes and rotations (the process of removing sensitive museum objects from display, to protect them from forces such as ongoing light damage, and replacing them with other items). We have avoided objects due to be imminently removed from the galleries, but rotations are inevitable with vulnerable textile-based objects, and we didn’t want to rule out too many pieces. Therefore, we decided to approach the trail as an agile offer which we will update when objects are no longer available in the galleries and to draw attention to exciting new displays.
When the draft opening selection was agreed, the Front of House team worked on the route, taking into consideration factors including accessibility and efficiency. Links to the V&A Digital Map are provided within the trail webpage to help with wayfinding.
It was great to research the pieces using sources such as V&A acquisition papers and online articles and write up the trail text. Keen to incorporate designers’ perspectives, we have included several extended quotations. Next, colleagues in Digital Media and Technology worked their magic – one key step being adding in beautiful imagery produced by the V&A Photography and Digitisation team – getting everything ready for the launch.
Beyond the contemporary fashion trail
It was difficult to narrow down the selection – even with the Fashion gallery closed, we have lots of contemporary fashion on display at V&A South Kensington. Further examples can be found in galleries including Design 1900 – Now and Theatre & Performance, where we’ve recreated Kylie Minogue’s glamorous dressing room.
Earlier fashion is on display in spaces including the Britain 1500 – 1760 and 1760 – 1900 galleries and the Europe 1600 – 1815 and Japan galleries. The ‘Expanding Wardrobe’ case in Britain 1760 – 1900 is another opportunity to see fashion en masse. Its patchwork dressing gown constructed using offcuts from waistcoat making is, I think, a real star object. Exhibited in the Japan gallery, the 19th-century kimono pictured below feature an array of beautifully executed techniques.
You might like to join one of the free Fashion: Dress and Style tours, which happen daily from 12.30, starting at the Meeting Point in the Cromwell Road Entrance. Other programming, such as Friday Late and Fashion in Motion, may also be of interest. Be warned, the tickets go fast for these free-to-attend fashion shows!
Fashion can also be found at other V&A sites, and V&A East Storehouse will be opening on 31 May 2025. Explore the Collections makes the V&A’s holdings searchable and is one of the many ways in which fashion objects cared for by the museum can be encountered online. Other examples include the Victoria and Albert Museum YouTube channel and, of course, the trails.
I hope that you enjoy this new addition to the V&A trails collection.
