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British Fashion Tour with the Victoria & Albert Museum

• Learn about fashion history in the world's capital of trend
• Led by a fashion or art historian

Victoria and Albert Museum Fashion Tour

Fashion icons through the ages.

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The Arts and Culture Magazine

London's, award-winning, student-run.

• Holly Anderson
• Sep 6, 2023

The V&A 2023 Fashion Tour: A closer look into the collection’s most pivotal pieces

The V&A is internationally renowned for its extensive collection of fashion and clothing from across the globe, spanning the origins of not only Western style but both Asian and African dress. The 2023 Fashion Tour, held daily at 12:30, provides a stunning display and informative guide to some of the most spectacular pieces that have shaped the V&A, reflecting changes in style across five centuries.

The tour begins in Room 45: Japan. The first piece shown to onlookers is the prize outer Kimono, otherwise known as an Uchikake, as part of the Toshiba Gallery, estimated to have originated from 1870-1890. The piece is noted for the impressive detailing portrayed on the back. Using silk and gold thread, the piece depicts the penultimate scene of a Kabuki play, with two mythical dog-like creatures, known as Shi Shi from Okinawan mythology, fighting over a bridge, thus indicating its prestigious previous owner. Ornately embellished with an array of flowers, the piece also highlighted the Japanese tradition of Mon, created with resit-dyed marks to identify the owner of the piece. Similarly, the practical use of fabric in traditional Japanese clothing was acknowledged with the four distinct panels used to construct the Kimono, including the sleeves.

Though still Japanese, the second piece on the tour showed a great contrast in Japanese style with the ‘Sweet Lolita Dress’. Originating from Harajuku, this piece highlighted the radical protest dress that has been adopted by women in Japan as a subversive street style to battle the patriarchy. Whilst its feminine nature and doll-like features do not often appear synonymous with Western perceptions of anti-patriarchal fashion, the Lolita movement in Japan is seen as a reaction against the adoption of gender roles forced upon young adults in traditional Japanese society. This can be clearly seen in the hints at French Rococo and Edwardian children’s clothing.

The following room, South Asia, introduced us to the impact of India on 17th-century English fashion with a Chintz gown. Chintz was an imported hand-dyed fabric which could only be made in India. The gown also highlighted the popularity of the pleated sack-back style, further distinguishing the expense of the gown along with the fabric. One important detail to note, however, was the upcycling of the original fabric to create a neo-classical high waistline, popular around 1790, entirely reshaping the dress.

Remaining in India, the following piece was a men’s Jama from Rajasthan made of muslin. The sleeves were rolled to show the fineness of the material, which was later reinforced to us as we were shown a sheet of Muslin in a textile display. Perhaps the most stunning part of this piece was the cases of jewelled beetles fastened onto the shoulder pads and breastplates amongst more gold detailing, indicating not only the tireless hours spent on the piece’s creation but the innovation found in 19th-century Indian clothing.

The next part of the tour brings you to the West with a neoclassical English dress from 1810. The dress itself is made of white silk with a net overlay that appears at first to be embroidered with gold thread but is instead embellished with real corn. The theme continues throughout the dress with a wheat sheaf motif (try saying that five times fast) repeating above the hem of the skirt and blown glass beads full of yellow wax to imitate wheat grains. This dress was incredibly provoking, not just by its construction, but as it is thought to symbolize the start of Western women’s fashion. After the French Revolution, fashion began to see faster changes, but one of the first trends was to wear white cotton, where the colour imitated classical antiquity and implied a virginal purity whilst the fabric choice symbolized the egalitarian nature of the new Republic. This dress in particular, with its agricultural detailing, is thought to have been a copy of Empress Josephine Bonaparte’s dress in her 1812 portrait by Jean-Baptiste Paulin Geurin. The combination of historical significance and brilliant textile management landed this piece as my favourite part of the tour.

The following pieces were from the V&A’s permanent collection, starting with a glamorous satin Charles James dress from 1934. Commissioned by Cecil Beaton for his socialite younger sister ‘Baba’ Beaton, the dress illustrates the pivotal shift from 1920s to 1930s fashion and figure trends. Using Madeline Vionnet’s bias cut and architectural techniques, Charles James created a dress that gave Baba a fuller bust, wider hips and a smaller waist, much unlike the ‘boyish’ figure popular just a decade before.

The succeeding dress, from 1938, was also a Charles James creation. The evening dress, made for Jennifer Jones, similarly highlights Charles James’ innovation with the piece displaying a complex cross-over bodice and keyhole design. Inspired by the surrealist movement, the piece also exhibits a pattern designed by Jean Cocteau, depicting illustrations of his face and the face of his lover Jean Marais.

The penultimate dress was made famous at Truman Capote’s 1966 Black and White Ball at the Plaza Hotel. The white silk ensemble, designed by Mila Schon, displayed a myriad of hand-stitched silver sequins across a shift dress and adjoining Matelassé coat. The dress was worn by Princess Lee Radziwill, sister of Jackie Kennedy, who had loaned the dress to the V&A in 1971 for Cecil Beaton’s Fashion: An Anthology. This piece came close second to being my favourite due to its captivating elegance and its role in creating the “ pinnacle of New York’s social history ”​ (Nowell 2004)​.

The final item shown in the tour was from the Contemporary Menswear collection: Harry Style’s Cardigan from 2019. Designed by JW Anderson, the cardigan was made significant when it was recreated during the 2020 Lockdown by Liv Huffman, which generated over 40 million searches across various social media platforms. In the V&A, JW Anderson had provided a QR code to access the crochet pattern of the original cardigan, inspired by the way in which Huffman had freely provided her own. The tour guide smoothly rounded the tour off in an introspective manner, arching back to the practical use of panel construction in both the Kimono and the cardigan, whilst inviting visitors of the V&A to look forward to the development of newer pieces awaiting a home in the collection.

It was certainly a thought-provoking end to the tour, leaving us questioning whether the future of fashion will continue to reflect this fusion with technology and a globalised accessibility to creating one’s own clothes. It can be argued that this newfound sense of global accessibility presents a controversial debate. On the one hand, it is incredibly positive, allowing many more people to navigate the world of fashion than previously ever possible as a result of widespread internet access. On the other, it presents a significant issue of oversaturation within the fashion industry, making it endlessly more difficult to build a fashion brand or generate exposure for an individual's design ideas amongst the sea of content on every social media outlet. Similarly, the intersection of fashion and technology continues to provide further discourse. Will the use of newer technological developments, such as AI, stifle human expression and creativity? Or will technology expand the capability of human design beyond what was fathomable even just a decade ago? I am excited to see the way in which technology could provide interesting solutions to the disjunction between the fashion industry and the global climate. With fast fashion creating 92 million tonnes of textile waste each year and 10% of annual carbon emissions, I am optimistic that technological innovation may end the nightmare that the fashion industry currently poses on the environment.

Overall, the tour was a fantastic experience providing great detail into the construction of incredibly significant pieces of fashion history and the sociocultural context behind each work. It was very enlightening and greatly accessible for anyone with a range of knowledge about fashion, providing an insightful start to exploring the vastness of the V&A museum.

Edited by Megan Shears, Fashion Editor

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Everything you need to know about the V&A's Naomi Campbell exhibition

Naomi: In Fashion will chart the supermodel's legendary life and career

Naomi: In Fashion , sponsored by BOSS, will tell the story of Campbell's impressive four-decade-long career as one of the most famous models in history. Campbell, who says she was "honoured to be asked by the V&A to share my life in clothes with the world", has appeared on countless catwalks, starred in hundreds of fashion campaigns and worked with the industry's most prestigious designers and photographers over the past 40 years. Her career began at an early age: she was scouted in Covent Garden at just 15, and made history a few years later as the first Black model to feature on the cover of Paris Vogue at 18 years old in 1988. She was later branded one of the original supermodels of the 1990s, alongside contemporaries such as Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer.

What will Naomi: In Fashion include?

Produced in collaboration with Campbell and foregrounding her voice and perspective, the V&A has said that the exhibition will "draw upon Campbell’s own extensive wardrobe of haute couture and ready-to-wear ensembles from key moments in her career, along with loans from designer archives and objects from the V&A’s collections".

Highlights will include a dramatic 1989 Thierry Mugler car-inspired corset, Campbell’s look from Sarah Burton’s last Alexander McQueen show, a pink Valentino ensemble worn at the 2019 Met Gala and that famous pair of staggeringly high Vivienne Westwood platform shoes worn by Campbell during her now-iconic 1993 catwalk fall.

The exhibition will include around 100 looks and accessories from the best of global high fashion, chronicling Campbell's years in the industry. Visitors will be treated to designs by Alexander McQueen, Azzedine Alaïa, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Gianni and Donatella Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, Kenneth Ize, Torishéju Dumi, Valentino, Virgil Abloh, Vivienne Westwood, Yves Saint Laurent and many others.

In addition to stunning garments and fashion accessories, fashion photography features prominently. Striking imagery by leading photographers such as Campbell Addy, Nick Knight, Peter Lindbergh and Steven Meisel will form a selection of photography at the exhibition, curated by Edward Enninful OBE.

"Naomi Campbell’s extraordinary career intersects with the best of high fashion," said Sonnet Stanfill, the senior curator of fashion at the V&A. "She is recognised worldwide as a supermodel, activist, philanthropist, and creative collaborator, making her one of the most prolific and influential figures in contemporary culture. We’re delighted to be working with Naomi Campbell on this project and to celebrate her career with our audiences."

As well as her role in the fashion industry, Naomi: In Fashion will also touch on Campbell's activism and cultural leadership, featuring prominent figures such as Nelson Mandela, whom she credits with opening her eyes to social injustice and inspiring her to use her platform for social change. The model joined the Black Girls Coalition in 1989 and has campaigned for The Diversity Coalition since 2013, alongside Iman and Bethann Hardison, to champion diversity on the catwalk. Naomi: In Fashion will also touch on her encouragement of emerging creatives, as seen through the global initiative Emerge, which she founded last year.

How will the exhibition be laid out?

The exhibition opens with high-impact clips of Campbell on the catwalk, illustrating her legendary 'walk', and setting the scene for the supermodel’s career. The first section, 'Becoming Naomi', charts her childhood as a south-Londoner in the 1970s, when she aspired to a career on stage and performed in 1980s music videos for artists including Bob Marley and Culture Club. Her life changed when, aged 15, she was approached by model agent Beth Boldt while out shopping with school friends – two years later she would be on the front cover of Vogue and walking for acclaimed designers in London, Paris, Milan and New York.

The next section, 'Supermodel', references Naomi and her peers in the Nineties, when fashion had become mass entertainment. Campbell, though still in her teens, was at the centre of this, and leading designers championed her talents. She moved beyond the world of fashion, performing in music videos, launching her own perfume and becoming a champion of diversity.

The exhibition then moves on to 'Azzedine Alaïa', a section which focuses on Campbell's relationship with the late designer and the way she inspired his work, before a section dedicated to 'New York', where Campbell moved aged 17, to throw herself into the city's buzzing fashion and social scene.

'The Spotlight ' explores a highly publicised biographical moment, when Campbell served a period of court ordered community service. It's followed by 'Exemplar', which looks at Campbell's early collaborations with fashion houses from Dolce & Gabbana and Vivienne Westwood to Jean Paul Gautier, and 'Alchemy', focusing on Campbell's unique relationship with the camera and world-renowned photographers, including Steven Meisel, Arthur Elgort, Patrick Demarchelier and David Bailey. The final section, 'Archetype', recognises Campbell's advocating for friends, career-defining moments and work with emerging designers.

How can I book tickets?

Naomi: In Fashion will run from 22 June 2024 until 6 April 2025 at the V&A. Tickets, which can be booked here now , cost £16 each.

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V&A South Kensington

Gabrielle Chanel

Fashion Manifesto

EXTENDED UNTIL MARCH 10 th 2024

Presenting more than 200 looks dating from the 1910s to 1971 and looking back at the style created by Gabrielle Chanel, the characteristics of her work, her codes and her contribution to the history of fashion, the exhibition ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’ is the first retrospective dedicated to the work of Gabrielle Chanel in the United Kingdom. Having premiered in Paris in 2020 before travelling to Melbourne and Tokyo, the exhibition, created in partnership with the Palais Galliera, the Fashion Museum of Paris, and with the support of CHANEL, opened at the V&A South Kensington in London last September. Due to its success, it has now been extended until March 10th, 2024.

The exhibition seen by Miren Arzalluz and Oriole cullen

Miren Arzalluz, director of the Palais Galliera in Paris, and Oriole Cullen, senior curator at the V&A South Kensington in London, discuss the genesis of the ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’ exhibition.

Opening of the ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’ Exhibition in London

Ambassadors and friends of the House including Keira Knightley, Naomi Campbell, and Hio Miyazawa gathered at the V&A South Kensington in London to celebrate the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’. 

From September 16th, 2023 to February 25th, 2024, the V&A South Kensington hosts the exhibition ‘Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto’. Shining a light on Gabrielle Chanel’s artistic legacy and the genesis of the codes of the House, this exhibition explores, among other themes, the history of the emblematic tweed suit, and what makes the allure of CHANEL unique. 

We do not store nor share this information, and your image is deleted automatically when you close the virtual try-on page. See the CHANEL Privacy Policy for more information on Chanel's use of personal data. By clicking I agree, you confirm that you also agree to the Chanel Legal Statement .

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

Naomi Campbell’s 40 Extraordinary Years in Fashion Will Be the Subject of an Exhibition in London

By Emma Spedding

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has announced that its next fashion exhibition will be dedicated to the British supermodel Naomi Campbell, almost 40 years after she was first scouted in Covent Garden at the age of 15. The exhibition, called simply Naomi, will follow the museum’s current retrospective dedicated to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel , and will showcase pieces from Campbell’s own extensive personal wardrobe, alongside archive looks from her runway career loaned by designers.

“For me as a fashion historian, what is so fascinating is the way that her 40-year career intersects with the best of high fashion,” curator Sonnet Stanfill explains to Vogue . “We’re telling the story of a career through clothes—clothes that are extraordinary.” There will also be an installation of significant fashion photography, curated by British Vogue ’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, which will capture the “special alchemy she has with photographers, resulting as magic on the page.”

Naomi’s 2019 Met Gala look by Valentino will be included in the exhibition, the curator confirmed.

This is the first time that a model will be the focus of an exhibition at the V&A, and Campbell’s personal involvement also makes it unique. “We are very much working with her to foreground her voice and her perspective,” Stanfill says. “I think what has come through those conversations is that this isn’t really a retrospective, as although it’s looking back across 40 years, she is still so active—she’s in ad campaigns, a coveted presence on the front row, and is regularly walking on the runway.”

Naomi —which will open on June 22, 2024, and run until April 6, 2025—will be a “broad survey of past and present”, with an emphasis on designers who helped shape her early career, such as Azzedine Alaïa (or “Papa”, as Campbell called him), Yves Saint Laurent and Gianni Versace, but also an exploration of her more recent runway looks. The exhibition will span 100 items in total, with pieces from Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Virgil Abloh and more set to be included. The only gown Stanfill confirmed will appear is the pink feathered and lace gown Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli designed for the supermodel to wear to the Met Gala in 2019.

Naomi Campbell walking at Dolce & Gabbana during Milan Fashion Week this September.

On Chanel’s spring 1992 couture runway.

The museum is working closely with Naomi herself to curate the exhibition. “She definitely has a point of view and we’re really fortunate that she wants to express that,” says Stanfill. “I think it would be presumptuous for any person to tell another person’s story, let alone one of the most prolific figures in contemporary culture, so we very much want to foreground her perspective and her voice.” The theme for Naomi won’t be simply the most beautiful clothes, but rather the pieces that tell a “layered story about a career and life that started in London.”

The challenge isn’t necessarily the volume of looks to comb through (although there are certainly thousands to choose from), but the inevitable deadline to finalize the exhibit—Stanfill and the V&A team could be adding right “up until the day before the exhibition,” given that the still highly sought-after model will likely walk in the fall 2024 and couture shows before then.

Cristy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.

Naomi Campbell at the 2023 Met Gala.

Stanfill has been asked whether the showcase is about Naomi’s life or her career. The answer is both, she says. “No one will be surprised to know that for her, her story of Azzedine Alaïa is more than a transactional, professional, career-based relationship, because he was like family to her,” she explains, touching on the more poignant and personal aspects of the exhibition. “So there will be moments like that which are more evocative and sensitive for her, and so it’s important to let her lead in some of those areas.” The late designer, with whom Campbell lived in Paris in the early days of her modeling career, became a beloved father figure.

By Alexandra Macon

By Talia Abbas

By Leah Faye Cooper

Naomi Campbell walking in Sarah Burton’s final spring/summer 2024 show for Alexander McQueen.

As well as celebrating her personal relationships within the industry, the exhibition will also highlight her efforts to champion diversity and her work as a philanthropist. Specific moments that will be spotlighted include her joining the Black Girls Coalition in 1989, and campaigning for more diversity on the catwalk with the Diversity Coalition. “She has communicated the role that Nelson Mandela played in galvanizing her, showing her a way to use her platform for fundraising and charity efforts, and that element will certainly be brought out,” Stanfill says.

This September has been all about the original supermodels: Cindy , Christy , Linda , and Naomi were reunited on the cover of Vogue ’s September issue, and the quartet closed Vogue World : London, walking hand-in-hand on stage as Annie Lennox sang the anthemic “Sweet Dreams”. The supers are also currently starring in the Apple TV+ documentary The Super Models , which charts their stratospheric rise in the ’90s, and their indelible impact on the fashion industry and the wider culture. Naomi also just wrapped on yet another significant fashion month, in which she closed Sarah Burton’s final Alexander McQueen show wearing a magnificent metallic corseted gown. With this exhibition on the horizon, 2024 looks set to be just as memorable.

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Africa Fashion

• 5 out of 5 stars
• Recommended

Time Out says

The V&A’s ambitious new exhibition is a triumphant attempt to complete the near-impossible task of capturing an entire continent through its fashion. Incorporating textiles, design and still and moving images, ‘Africa Fashion’ takes visitors on a compelling journey from the 1960s to the present day in a bid to reshape existing geographies and narratives of style.

It feels like a glorious celebration. There’s joy in the key points that punctuate the show: a brilliant pink outfit of trousers and kinetic cape by Imane Ayissi from 2019 bams you straight in the eye as you enter. The second floor is dominated by Artsi Ifrach’s Maison Artc ‘A Dialogue Between Cultures’, with its organza, ribbon and plastic-fishbone crinoline, dress and mask at the top of the stairs, while James Barnor’s gorgeous Kodachrome photographs hail us like old friends in an embrace of colour. But there’s also pleasure in the quieter examples: a salt-crystal necklace by Ami Doshi Shah, Ibrahim Kamala’s loving 2022 photographic homage to trailblazing designer Chris Seydou’s 1980s ensemble, the assurance of Gouleh Ahmed’s images of non-binary people. While these moments accrue, there’s never a sense of being overwhelmed by content, there’s a confident restraint, a balance between the headliners and the new kids on the block which always keeps things fresh and unflagging.

Identity and Blackness are core here, and while there’s a political dimension working through the narratives and choice of contemporary designers – Hassan Hajjaj’s customised ‘swoosh’ babouche slippers, for example, with their nod to twenty-first-century consumerism, Bubu Ogisi’s beautiful raffia designs referencing the historical exploitation of the Congo – there’s also just a more simple celebration in the sight of Black designers’ work on Black mannequins, Black photographers and filmmakers working with Black stylists and models, occupying the space right, left and centre.

Above all, ‘Africa Fashion’ has heart. Where shows about fashion design can often be aloof in their presentation of aspirational couture, the curation here never loses sight of the personal, the more intimate narrative, the micro explaining the macro. The renowned and internationally lauded, such as Beyoncé fave Sarah Diouf, are acknowledged, but in displays such as the vitrine devoted to ‘The Unnamed Dressmaker’ or the kente cloth commissioned by a mother to mark the birth of her daughter, the debt is paid to the ostensibly humbler cultures born of tradition and necessity that have contributed so much to the elevated creations stalking the world’s catwalks.

‘Africa Fashion’ uses photography, film and personal objects to bring garments to life, but this approach does double duty here because the visitor understands that Africa style runs through everything. In 1958, Kwana Nkrumah said, ‘I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.’ As the Yoruba concept of itutu or ‘cool’, combined with asé (‘command’) and iwà (‘character’) to create ‘cool pose’ illustrates, it’s a philosophy for life.

You leave this beautiful show with its vision for the future, an Afrotopia, where ‘Fashion is a space for imagination, for hope, for pain, for aspiration. African fashion creatives use their work to actualise a more equitable and sustainable future in which we all thrive.’ Satisfyingly, this exhibition is cut from the same cloth.

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The Victoria and Albert Museum London, United Kingdom

As the world's leading museum of art and design, the V&A enriches people's lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed world.

Read more on the V&A website

Ann West's Patchwork

The victoria and albert museum, balenciaga: master craftsman, schiaparelli and surrealism, indian textiles: nature & making, influence and longevity, masterpieces of english medieval embroidery, gallery of fashion, the politics of fashion, exhibiting fashion, marshall & snelgrove coat, v&a fashion in motion, in this collection, 2,014 items, 1,948 items, 1,639 items, 1,376 items, 1,235 items, united kingdom, 1,098 items, 5,093 items.

All hail the diva! V&A exhibition will celebrate iconic performers

By Natasha Leake

Elton John and boyfriend David Furnish attend Elton John's 50th Birthday Party at the Hammersmith Palais

The power of the diva – from Marilyn Monroe to Sir Elton John – will be celebrated in a suitably outlandish exhibition at the V&A.

Grace Kelly, later known as Princess Grace of Monaco, passed down her classic good looks to her granddaughter Camille, 24

By Stephanie Bridger-Linning

Fashion, photographs, music, design and (naturally) over-the-top costumes will be showcased side-by-side in DIVA, which will shine a spotlight on some of the best known performers in history. It’s the first exhibition of its kind to bring to life ‘the extraordinary power and creativity of iconic performers who have made their voices heard from the 19th century to today,’ the museum claims. 

Cher, Elton John and Diana Ross at Rock Awards Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 1975

By Isaac Bickerstaff

By Harriet Johnston

Starting with the origins of the term diva, which means goddess in Italian, the exhibition will look at how a pejorative label has been reclaimed by some of the most beloved performers of all time, spotlighting their outfits, many of which have never been seen before on display.

Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto will open at the V&A in London on 16 September – but tickets are already selling out

By Stephanie Bridger-Linning and Rebecca Cope

Highlights include the fringed black dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in her 1952 film,  Some Like It Hot and a towering Louis XIV-inspired powdered wig worn by Sir Elton John for his 50th birthday celebrations. Also featured is a corseted crimson Dior dress worn by Vivien Leigh in 1958. Dame Shirley Bassey’s pink Julien MacDonald couture gown, complete with diamanté-studded wellington boots and worn on stage at Glastonbury in 2007, will also be on display.

Costume, designed by Christian Dior, worn by Vivien Leigh as Paola in Jean Giraudoux's play, ‘Duel of Angels’, Apollo Theatre, 1958

Dame Shirley said: ‘I’m delighted that the V&A will be displaying my Glastonbury look in DIVA, complete with diamanté wellington boots! It is wonderful to see the diva celebrated in this exhibition, and to see the V&A reclaiming the title. To me, “diva” is all about the power of the voice and the ability to entertain, to succeed against odds, to fight, and break through barrier after barrier: to have your voice heard.’

‘Yevonde: Life and Colour’ , which celebrates photographer Yevonde Middleton, will open at the National Portrait gallery on 22 June

The exhibition is also set to include a sonic headset experience, along with a video wall which will celebrate ‘drag and its relationship to the diva’. Act One of the exhibition looks at the ‘creation of the diva’, from Hollywood actors to Opera singers over the late 19th and 20th centuries. Visitors can marvel at a couture gown on loan from Josephine Baker’s former home in France – Château de Milandes – or gaze at American Soprano Maria Callas’s dress worn for Franco Zeffirelli’s legendary 1964 performance of  Tosca at the Royal Opera House . 

Lizzo wearing faux-ermine dress with ‘Don’t Be a Drag Just Be a Queen’ sash by Viktor&Rolf, New York City, 2021

Act Two of the exhibition will explore how ‘performers of all genders have redefined and reclaimed the title “diva” as an expression of their art, voice, and sense of self’, the V&A explains. Highlights of this part of the exhibition will include Edith Piaf’s little black dress worn during the 1950s (the singer was said to wear black to every performance as it helped the audience focus on her vocals). Cher, also, takes centre stage of the exhibition with her outfits across the decades, including a glittering Bob Mackie two-piece worn to the 1975 Rock Music Awards.

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Kate Bailey, curator of DIVA, said: ‘At the heart of this exhibition is a story of iconic performers who with creativity, courage and ambition have challenged the status quo and used their voice and their art to redefine and reclaim the diva.’

DIVA at the V&A, 24 June 2023 – 7 April 2024. The museum would like to acknowledge exhibition supporter Kathryn Uhde.

By Alexander O'Loughlin

V&A Fashion Tour

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V&A Fashion Tour: Read More

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of fashion at the V&A Fashion Tour, taking place at the iconic V&A South Kensington in the heart of London. From Friday April 7 2023 to Sunday December 31 2023, this event promises to be a must-visit for fashion enthusiasts and history buffs alike. Organized by the esteemed V&A, this tour offers a unique opportunity to explore their world-renowned fashion collection. Delve into the ever-evolving world of style as you witness the changing shapes and tastes throughout the centuries. From the exquisite 17th-century fashions to the cutting-edge designs of today, this tour showcases the evolution of fashion like no other. No great outfit is complete without the perfect accessories, and the V&A Fashion Tour understands this. Discover the artistry and craftsmanship behind the exquisite jewellery, gloves, and handbags that have adorned fashionistas throughout history. Marvel at the intricate details and timeless elegance that these accessories bring to any ensemble. It's important to note that these tours are led by passionate volunteer guides who generously share their knowledge and love for fashion. However, please be aware that they are subject to cancellation. To ensure you don't miss out on this incredible experience, we recommend checking with a member of their team on the day for any updates or changes. While everyone is welcome to attend, it's worth mentioning that these tours are best suited for children aged 12 and above, as well as adults. So gather your friends, family, or fellow fashion enthusiasts and embark on a journey through the fascinating world of fashion at the V&A Fashion Tour. Don't miss this opportunity to immerse yourself in the rich history and artistry of fashion. Mark your calendars from Friday April 7 2023 to Sunday December 31 2023 and make your way to V&A South Kensington in London. Get ready to be inspired, educated, and captivated by the incredible fashion collection that awaits you.

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Naomi Campbell’s 40 Extraordinary Years In Fashion Will Be The Subject Of An Exhibition At The V&A

By Emma Spedding

Naomi Campbell with a selection of her archival pieces at the V&A.The V&A has announced that its next fashion exhibition will be dedicated to the British supermodel Naomi Campbell, almost 40 years after she was first scouted in Covent Garden at the age of 15. The exhibition, called simply Naomi, will follow the museum’s current retrospective dedicated to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel , and will showcase pieces from Campbell’s own extensive personal wardrobe, alongside archive looks from her runway career loaned by designers.

“For me as a fashion historian, what is so fascinating is the way that her 40-year career intersects with the best of high fashion,” curator Sonnet Stanfill explains to British Vogue . “We’re telling the story of a career through clothes – clothes that are extraordinary.” There will also be an installation of significant fashion photography, curated by British Vogue ’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, which will capture the “special alchemy she has with photographers, resulting as magic on the page”.

Naomi Campbell with a selection of her archival pieces at the V&A.

This is the first time that a model will be the focus of an exhibition at the V&A, and Campbell’s personal involvement also makes it unique. “We are very much working with her to foreground her voice and her perspective,” Stanfill says. “I think what has come through those conversations is that this isn’t really a retrospective, as although it’s looking back across 40 years, she is still so active – she’s in ad campaigns, a coveted presence on the front row and is regularly walking on the runway.”

Naomi’s 2019 Met Gala look by Valentino will be included in the exhibition, the curator confirmed.

Naomi was photographed in the V&A with the lilac Chanel suit that she wore on the runway in October 1993.

Naomi , which will open on 22 June 2024 and run until 6 April 2025, will be a “broad survey of past and present”, with an emphasis on designers who helped shape her early career, such as Azzedine Alaïa (or “Papa”, as Campbell called him), Yves Saint Laurent and Gianni Versace, but also an exploration of her more recent runway looks. The exhibition will span 100 items in total, with pieces from Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Virgil Abloh and more set to be included. The only gown Stanfill confirmed will appear is the pink feathered and lace gown Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli designed for the supermodel to wear to the Met Gala in 2019.

Naomi Campbell walking at Dolce & Gabbana during Milan Fashion Week this September.

On Chanel’s spring 1992/3 couture runway.

The museum is working closely with Naomi herself to curate the exhibition. “She definitely has a point of view and we’re really fortunate that she wants to express that,” says Stanfill. “I think it would be presumptuous for any person to tell another person’s story, let alone one of the most prolific figures in contemporary culture, so we very much want to foreground her perspective and her voice.” The theme for Naomi won’t be simply the most beautiful clothes, but rather the pieces that tell a “layered story about a career and life that started in London”.

The challenge isn’t necessarily the volume of looks to comb through (although there are certainly thousands to choose from), but the inevitable deadline to finalise the exhibit – Stanfill and the V&A team could be adding right “up until the day before the exhibition”, given that the still highly sought-after model will likely walk in the autumn/winter 2024 and couture shows.

Cristy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.

Naomi Campbell at the 2023 Met Gala.

Stanfill has been asked whether the showcase is about Naomi’s life or her career. The answer is both, she says. “No one will be surprised to know that for her, her story of Azzedine Alaïa is more than a transactional, professional, career-based relationship, because he was like family to her,” she explains, touching on the more poignant and personal aspects of the exhibition. “So there will be moments like that which are more evocative and sensitive for her, and so it’s important to let her lead in some of those areas.” The late designer, with whom Campbell lived in Paris in the early days of her modelling career, became a beloved father figure.

By Daniel Rodgers

By Hannah Coates

By Alice Newbold

Naomi Campbell walking in Sarah Burton’s final spring/summer 2024 show for Alexander McQueen.

As well as celebrating her personal relationships within the industry, the exhibition will also highlight her efforts to champion diversity and her work as a philanthropist. Specific moments that will be spotlighted include her joining the Black Girls Coalition in 1989, and campaigning for more diversity on the catwalk with the Diversity Coalition. “She has communicated the role that Nelson Mandela played in galvanising her, showing her a way to use her platform for fundraising and charity efforts, and that element will certainly be brought out,” Stanfill says.

This September has been all about the original supermodels: Cindy , Christy , Linda and Naomi were reunited on the cover of Vogue ’s September issue, and the quartet closed Vogue World : London, walking hand-in-hand on stage as Annie Lennox sang the anthemic “Sweet Dreams”. The supers are also currently starring in the Apple TV+ documentary The Super Models , which charts their stratospheric rise in the ’90s, and their indelible impact on the fashion industry and the wider culture. Naomi also just wrapped on yet another significant fashion month, in which she closed Sarah Burton’s final Alexander McQueen show wearing a magnificent metallic corseted gown. With this exhibition on the horizon, 2024 look set to be just as memorable.

By Alex Kessler

By Emily Chan

Kid Cudi Cancels Tour After Breaking Foot at Coachella: 'The Injury is Much More Serious Than I Thought'

Watch kid cudi break his foot during coachella performance, '90 day fiancé': alex tries to talk loren out of her ‘mommy makeover’ surgery (exclusive), 'little people, big world' season finale: watch zach and tori's final scene, travis kelce reacts to taylor swift's 'punk'd' episode with justin bieber, kim kardashian reveals she used to walk madonna’s dogs in exchange for her jewelry, how isabella strahan responded to fan asking if she's still alive, lisa vanderpump hits back at jax taylor's claim 'vanderpump rules' is 'scripted' (exclusive), jennifer lopez at the met gala: see her style evolution, kim kardashian says 'nipple bra' was designed after her own breasts, ‘mafs’: chloe calls out castmates' ‘mean girl behavior' after receiving hate online (exclusive), '90 day fiancé': adriano vents to his friend about alex not being open to threesomes (exclusive), how kim kardashian feels about taylor swift's alleged diss track 'thank you aimee' (source), jennifer garner and mark ruffalo reunite with 'thriller' dance for '13 going on 30' anniversary, watch kellie pickler perform for the first time since her husband kyle jacobs' death, celine dion opens up about return to public eye following stiff person syndrome diagnosis, christina applegate explains why she's been wearing diapers, gwen stefani and blake shelton show off farming skills in the city, jamie lynn spears' daughter maddie glams up for prom, breckin meyer reflects on untimely death of ‘clueless’ co-star brittany murphy, alec baldwin punches phone of pro-palestine protester after being heckled at coffee shop, watch nicki minaj throw object back at fans who threw it at her during concert, the rapper made his return to the coachella valley music festival, and suffered an injury upon jumping off stage..

The rage will have to wait!  Kid Cudi announced on Wednesday that his Insano: Engage The Rage World Tour is canceled after he broke his foot during his Coachella performance on Sunday. 

The "Mojo So Dope" rapper shared the news via social media. "From your friend, Scott 🥺 with mad love," the 40-year-old rapper, whose real name is Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, captioned the message.

"Guys, so I have a broken calcaneus," he began his post. "I'm headed to surgery now and there's gonna be a long recovery time. We have to cancel the tour so I can focus on getting better to be out there in top shape to rage with you all. There's just no way I can bounce back in time to give 100%. The injury is much more serious than I thought." 

Cudi continued, "Anyone who bought tickets will get a full refund, you'll get an email soon. We will be back with new tour dates as soon as possible, and I can't wait to get back out there with you guys and turn up how we do. I'm so sorry fam and I love you all so much."

He ended his post by expressing to fans how upset he is to have to pull the plug on the tour, but reassured them that he's not in much pain and in good spirits. 

"I'm really disappointed as I'm sure you guys are too, but I will be back. That's a promise," he wrote. "I'm OK, just a lil soreness but I'm in good spirits." 

Cudi's Insano Engage The Rage Tour was set to kick-off June 28 in Austin, Texas. Pusha T, Jaden Smith and Earthgang were set to hit the road alongside the rapper. 

On Sunday, Cudi made his highly-anticipated return to Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. In videos captured by the crowd, the "Day 'N Night" rapper was towards the final act of his set when he leaped off the stage to show his fans some love. 

As he made the jump, Cudi fell completely to the ground and was seen rolling in pain -- still with a smile on his face. The set ended early and the rapper was carried backstage and taken away in a ambulance.

In a tweet following the incident, Cudi confirmed his injury.

"Hey guys, so I broke my foot today at the show. just leavin the hospital. Never broken a bone before so this is all a bit crazy," he wrote. "I wanna thank u all for ur concerns and well wishes!!  I love yall man.  I heard yall still ragin when I was offstage.  Made me smile big."

Following his injury, Cudi has been showered with love from his fans and followers. On Tuesday, the rapper reassured them that he was in good hands, as his mother and fiancé Lola Sartore are taking good care of him. 

"Layin n bed w my moms like when I was a kid," he wrote on X. "Her and my  fiancé Lola have been holdin me down since I got injured and I feel like the luckiest man alive."

Updates on Celebrity News, TV, Fashion and More!

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The Real Reason Taylor Swift Dresses Like That

A close read on a decade of outfits..

This article was featured in One Great Story , New York ’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.

Considering the meta nature of Taylor Swift’ s performances — her autobiographical lyrics and her intimate connection with audiences — it’s unsurprising that her fashion choices betray self-consciousness. One senses that she isn’t entirely comfortable with high fashion, and maybe that’s something she shares with her young fans and why they instinctively relate to her. Swift is 34 and one of the most successful musical artists in history , with an empire estimated at over $1 billion . And much of that success is due to the image she projects — of a woman still coming of age, still discovering herself. Any style that’s too sophisticated or eccentric would spoil the illusion, and that goes for her red-carpet and casual attire as well as her stage clothes.

For the Eras tour, which had 16 costumes per show, Swift did have some looks by Versace, Oscar de la Renta, and Roberto Cavalli. But these are not the most exciting designer names. Besides, the Cavalli and Versace styles — a beaded miniskirt and cropped top or a bejeweled bodysuit, all worn with glitter boots — conformed to Swift’s favorite stage aesthetic of a drum majorette. She dressed like a marching-band leader, in a gold-braided white jacket and top hat, for her 2009 global Fearless tour. To me, so many of her costumes are reminiscent of the corny saloon-gal styles that another American sweetheart, Debbie Reynolds, wore in westerns, as well as the spangled costumes that the great Bob Mackie designed for TV variety shows in the 1960s and ’70s. There’s a wonderful hoofer charm, a showgirl moxie, about these Swift looks that resonate with audiences. During Eras, Swift also wore ethereal princess gowns — another key style for the singer — like a dreamy Elie Saab number in blush tulle and a lavender tiered Nicole + Felicia dress, both worn for the Speak Now section.

By contrast, other pop divas have harnessed high fashion to their power. Look at Madonna’s “Blond Ambition” phase, in 1990, and her use of Jean Paul Gaultier’s shocking designs. Beyoncé, for her Renaissance tour, completely bent fashion to her will, taking the work of some of the most daring designers — Marc Jacobs, Rick Owens, and Jonathan Anderson of Loewe, to name three — and pushing their looks for her further into fantasy.

That’s not Swift’s jam or, rather, her brand. She sees herself as a storyteller, in the tradition of Joni Mitchell. She has sung about love, breakups, revenge, family, and self-loathing. These are universal themes and especially relevant to girls and young women. Swift is famous for planting what she calls “ Easter eggs” — hidden clues — in her lyrics. Describing the strategy as a way to “incentivize” fans to read her lyrics, she has said, “I think the best messages are cryptic ones.” This also applies to her style. Indeed, with Swift — more than most pop stars — every choice seems to relate to her work or the Swift brand image. One obvious, feel-good connection point with her audience — which includes moms who accompany their daughters to concerts — is nostalgia and a feeling of pageantry. Some of her frothy gowns evoke not only high-school prom and images of old-style debutante parties but also the glamour of Edith Head’s movie costumes in the 1950s. Swift has said that watching Hitchcock’s Rear Window — gowns by Head — and reading the romantic novel Rebecca during lockdown influenced her albums Folklore and Evermore . In a cynical, fast-moving world, that kind of traditional form can seem quite attractive.

It’s also worth noting that Swift is hyperaware of the dangers of celebrity. “I see a lot of celebrities build up these emotional walls around themselves where they let no one in,” she said in 2014, “and that’s what makes them feel very lonely at the top.” Staying emotionally open in her lyrics and accessible in her fashion is surely a way she avoids creating walls. Her fans must sense that. But it can lead to some self-conscious looks on the red carpet and in her street attire. This was true of the white custom-made Schiaparelli gown with a floor-sweeping hem and train that she wore to this year’s Grammys , which was criticized across social media. On Instagram, Sarah Chapelle (@taylorswiftstyled), who is publishing a book this fall about Swift’s style, likened the gown’s draping to “tangled bedsheets” and said that considering it was the work of Daniel Roseberry, it was “almost a greater disappointment.” Chapelle, who has spent years tracking and decoding every detail of Swift’s outfits, assumed that the gown and its black accessories were Easter eggs. This time, the hint was to her forthcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, which has a black-and-white cover of a woman in black underwear lying in white sheets. Chapelle hunted down the make of the undies — a sheer Saint Laurent top and The Row’s briefs — and noted that Swift’s wearing so much of late from those brands was no coincidence. “Is there ever one with Taylor, really?” wrote Chapelle. She felt that the beautiful elements of the Schiaparelli gown were “sacrificed to the early evocation of a scholarly-sounding album.”

In other words, Swift laid a bad egg.

There is also a fair amount of calculation in the singer’s off-duty clothes — more than a non-Swifty might suppose, given how basic much of her street style is. Her favorite looks, and maybe her best, are easy slip dresses, or a frilly white shirt with denim cutoffs and boots, or a schoolgirl plaid skirt with a plain sweater and chunky loafers — what one Swiftologist calls “liberal arts student, Shoreditch dweller.” Though Swift is known for wearing relatively inexpensive brands like Rails, House of CB (for a $119 black bustier top she wore earlier this year with a $1,400 Miu Miu mini), Madewell and Reformation, she also wears a lot of high-end labels, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, The Row, Stella McCartney, and Area. Lots of celebrities play with a similar high-low mix, but with Swift, the effect generally comes off as decidedly junior, as though she’s consciously trying not to get above her fans’ tastes or means.

As a Kansas City Chiefs fan, I watched Swift’s appearances during the NFL season to cheer on her boyfriend , Travis Kelce . Still, I found nothing special about her red sweaters and bombers, with layers of gold jewelry, other than a tie-in to K.C.’s team color. But Chapelle found the Easter eggs. The red crewneck, from Gigi Hadid’s Guest in Residence brand , that Swift wore to the Chiefs’ title match with the Ravens was a “sentimental” nod to a friend. In Chapelle’s view, its plainness showed that Swift was careful “to strike a more supportive spectator (not starring) role” at such a big game. Chapelle clocked her diamond tennis bracelet with the romantic letters “TNT” and then linked the style to the friendship bracelets her fans wear, a fad that started because of a line in a song she wrote.

The fact that Swift makes all these gestures, with or without the help of a stylist (she has long worked with Joseph Cassell), is a great way to keep her fans engaged. And apparently, it’s also good for business. But it seems exhausting and limiting for a woman in her mid-30s to dress according to a lyric or a girlish sentiment. You can understand why many people on fan sites wish she’d take more risks with her street style. They’re probably bored with the “liberal arts student” look. It’s also a little disingenuous, given her grown-up status. I admire the fact that she doesn’t seem interested in playing the high-fashion game — that is, turning up at the shows or appearing in a campaign or being a brand ambassador. She has her own immense platform, which she’s used for political and social causes.

But she could afford to go further in her style. Instead of a schoolgirl skirt or a baggy pair of jeans, she’d look amazing in, say, a sleek Dior pencil suit, made to measure — why not? — and without all the trinket jewelry, however expensive. It’s worth remembering that Taylor Swift has always been older and wiser than her years. The girl can’t be discovering herself forever.

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Musicians Are in Their Eras Era

From Taylor Swift to Madonna to Missy Elliott, stars are increasingly blurring the lines between past and present.

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There was a time, not so long ago, when the term “era” brought to mind strictly academic concepts: a scale to measure the Earth’s geological time; a system for classifying sweeping events of human history; a theoretical timeline of our known universe.

If this trend has a progenitor, it’s Taylor Swift : The musician’s career-spanning Eras Tour is reportedly the highest-grossing tour of all time. “Branding it as the Eras Tour and doing a greatest-hits run pulled in so many people, because you go to a show and it’s so clear how many fans came from the country years, and how some didn’t become Swifties until Reputation ,” says Elana Fishman, Page Six style editor and bona fide Swiftie. And Swift didn’t just revisit those eras musically; she also paid homage to the aesthetics of each album cycle, whether through a Reputation -era snake slithering across a Roberto Cavalli catsuit or a sequined matching set that called back to her 1989 persona.

Of course, Swift didn’t invent the idea of tying fashion to different album cycles—that would be Madge, the Queen of Pop herself. Madonna committed to changing everything—from hairstyle to makeup to wardrobe—for each new record cycle, as if creating characters, in a way that few have achieved before or since. “Other artists have also had eras, but they may have had the same hair color throughout all of them. It doesn’t really count,” says creative director and stylist Shannon Stokes, who’s worked with Beyoncé , Rihanna , and SZA . “To me, those are great, and those can still be considered eras, but as a true textbook, you always have to go to Madonna.”

For Stokes, creating and revisiting these visually disparate eras isn’t just useful in distinguishing album cycles, it also creates a fuller picture of the artists themselves. Fans feel more connected to a multifaceted musician. “When you’re doing everything properly, people get to see who you are in all different [areas] of your life: your sexual sides, your fun sides, your vulnerable sides, your introspective sides,” he explains. “It creates a stronger bond, because that fan base feels like they know you more, seeing all sides of your personality.”

It’s notable that there are very few male artists playing with visual identity in quite the same way. While there are some, like Harry Styles or Lil Nas X, dabbling in tying fashion to album cycles, Paul McCartney isn’t exactly hauling out a Sgt. Pepper jacket on his tours. Maybe female stars feel more pressure to constantly reinvent themselves. Or maybe they’re embarking on a high-stakes version of what we all do when embarking on a makeover. Whether it’s a post-breakup closet cleanse or a big-ticket luxury purchase to celebrate a milestone, our clothes reflect who we are at different moments in time—and revisiting those pieces can be liberating, not to mention a fun way of remembering our former selves.

“We, as regular people, have had eras too,” Stokes says. “It’s an evolution, but you still can differentiate the time periods when you were living a certain way and therefore dressing a certain way and doing certain things.” While she may not have invented the wheel, Swift has discovered how to put her own spin on it, keeping fans engaged in the process. She’s taught followers to hunt for clues about upcoming album cycles in her clothes, fueling speculation that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) would be her next re-release with a pair of Jimmy Choo x Jean Paul Gaultier boots—or announcing her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department , with a white Schiaparelli gown at the Grammys.

“A few months before the album rollout really starts, she’ll solidify what her aesthetic is going to be for that era,” Fishman says. “It keeps people hooked, because they’re decoding these clues and zooming in on Getty Images of her paparazzi walks and saying, ‘Is that a snake on her ring, or is it just a vine twisting?’ It becomes a real game.”

And while reinvention may still be all the rage among younger artists, one thing is for sure: There’s no longer a reason to fear history repeating itself. This article appears in the May 2024 issue of ELLE.

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Taylor Swift's outfit in new 'Fortnight' video designed by Milwaukee artist Elena Velez

In her latest music video, “Fortnight,” Taylor Swift donned a Victorian-gothic-style outfit that was designed by emerging Milwaukee artist Elena Velez .

The video, which was released Friday, had nearly 18 million views by Saturday night on YouTube and is the No. 1 trending video for music.

The ensemble designed by Velez and worn by Swift makes its appearance at a little more than one minute into the video just before the music artist Post Malone makes an appearance and the two performers start using early 1900s typewriters.

The all-black outfit is actually separates and is not a dress, according to the Taylor Swift fashion blog Taylorswiftstyle.com .

The pieces are from Velez’s Fall 2024 collection, which debuted in February.

Velez told Vogue magazine that her intentions with this collection included bringing a “more multi-dimensional representation of womanhood, good and bad; one that accepts the difficult, complicated, ugly truth of being a woman as part of the beauty that makes us whole…”

The dark and gloomy outfit fits the overall mood of Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

It is reminiscent of the dresses worn by high-class women of the late 1800s and early 1900s in Europe and the U.S.

The look was popularized by Queen Victoria of England, who wore elegant and elaborate funeral garb in public mourning of her husband Albert, who died in 1861, until her own death in 1901.

Velez posted a picture of Swift wearing the ensemble on her Instagram page , but she has not made public comments about the exposure, yet.

Velez is of Puerto Rican heritage but was raised in Milwaukee by a single mother who was a ship captain on the Great Lakes. Velez told Journal Sentinel reporter Hannah Kirby in March that influenced her artistic identity.

Educated in fashion design in Paris and London with degrees in 2018 and 2020, she was quickly noticed in the fashion world. Velez was the 2022 Council of Fashion Designers of America’s “Emerging Designer of the Year” award winner and the 2022 Vogue Fashion Fund winner.

Velez says on her website that some of her proudest work so far has been with Midwestern makers to help democratize resources and recognition for artists outside of traditional creative capitals.

She is now based in New York.

More: Taylor Swift’s 'The Tortured Poets Department' album breaks Spotify streaming record

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Inside Fashion’s Booming Unofficial Schmoozefest

By Samuel Hine

This is an edition of the newsletter Show Notes, in which Samuel Hine reports from the front row of the global fashion week circuit. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

At Milan Fashion Week in February, I could barely go two steps in my Bally moccasins without being asked if I was coming back for Salone del Mobile in April. Salone, as it’s known, is the sprawling fair that anchors Milan Design Week, a festival of furniture and architecture that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city every year. Salone is also the only week when flights and hotels are more expensive than during the runway shows, when taxis are somehow even more scarce, when the waiters at Torre di Pisa look at you with even more disdain when you walk in senza reservation. If you think it’s crazy now, everyone said, just wait for Salone . No thank you!

And then I relented and started planning a trip, for the same reason Salone was on everyone’s lips during the runway show circuit. This year, I realized, Milan’s design-palooza was effectively a supercharged extension of fashion week, the latest sign of an accelerating convergence between the worlds of luxury clothing, design, art, and architecture.

“Design Ancora” at Gucci's Milan flagship

“It’s all becoming one big world,” Thom Browne told me. The designer, who typically shows his collections between New York and Paris, parachuted into Salone to launch a line of bedding with heritage Italian linen brand Frette. In one of the week’s headlining moments, Browne took over the historic Palazzina Appiani for a presentation-slash-performance art piece (which I reviewed here ) featuring models dressed in the brand’s signature gray garb sleeping on a series of luxuriously appointed cots. Compared to Browne’s elaborately theatrical runway shows, it was, the designer acknowledged, a bit more “monotonous.” But it was a compelling twist on what the Salone crowd is used to: looking at furniture in a showroom. “There is a lot of crossover,” Browne said, “but it’s nice to do something for a different audience.”

Thom Browne was just one of many luxury brands that brought outsize buzz to Salone. At a cocktail party held by Loewe to celebrate an exhibition of 24 lamps the brand commissioned for the fair, Jonathan Anderson marveled at the turnout for the first day of the show, held in the modern bunker-like basement beneath the 18th-century Palazzo Citterio. “It was madness ,” he said. “We had one- thousand people registered to see the show today, and a 250 person queue down the street all day long!” Most of the eclectic price-upon-request light fixtures appeared to be sold.

The Thom Browne x Frette performance

I was in Milan for 48 hours, but I would have needed an entire week to hit all of the fashion events that took over the city. Besides Thom Browne and Loewe, Loro Piana, Gucci, Versace, Bottega Veneta, Prada, Hermès, Fendi, Saint Laurent, Zegna, Balenciaga, Rimowa, Moncler, Stone Island, JW Anderson, and Off-White all held exhibitions and installations and activations.

Only a few fashion houses were there to actually sell furniture of their own design and manufacture. As a furniture world executive told me at one of the thousand cocktail parties happening on Monday night, it is extraordinarily hard to break into the business due to the high costs of developing production and distribution. (Hermès, which took over a warehouse for an extremely popular immersive presentation of its artisanal leather-wrapped chairs and cashmere blankets, is a rare exception.)

What fashion brands have gotten the hang of is how to use Salone as a marketing tool to a wide swath of consumers. I’ve never seen a line outside a Gucci store anywhere like the one snaking around the brand’s via Montenapoleone flagship on Monday. The crowd was there not for a new collection drop but to see an an exhibition of five iconic pieces of Italian design—including the deeply-’80s Perola lamp designed by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni, and the modernist Storet drawers by Nanda Vigo—done in the brand’s new signature beet-red Rosso Ancora hue . And in a concrete shell off Palazzo San Fedele that will eventually be the new Bottega Veneta offices, the brand installed two piles of Le Corbusier stools—the same ones guests sat on at Matthieu Blazy’s February runway show.

Loewe's lamp installation

I’ll admit that Salone lacks the whiz-bang of fashion week. Bottega Veneta’s Fall-Winter 2024 show was full of Blazy’s compelling and challenging ideas about beauty, craft, shape, and the way we dress today. A$AP Rocky was there. Gazing at the object I sat on for that experience was more one-note. Cool stool!

But I quickly realized that Salone’s relatively low frequency was precisely why the fashion crowd loves it so much. Salone is not a celebrity magnet, and the press preview days are packed but low-stress. You can make your own schedule, and there are buckets of free champagne and negronis at every stop. There are no street style photographers, so everyone dresses with a sense of ease. Even publicists, usually frantic, were relaxed. “Oh my god, this week is so much better,” said an Italian fashion PR as he crushed a spritz outside new aperitivo hotspot Bene Bene. The publicist’s firm was handling over two dozen events in two days, but none would require wrangling movie stars or influencers. Unlike clouty fashion week fêtes, Salone cocktail parties are tier-one insider schmooze fests; the biggest of the week was T Magazine’s twentieth anniversary blowout at the iconic Villa Necchi, which broke up soon after a man stripped down to his underwear and jumped in the pool.

Loro Piana's tribute to Cini Boeri

By Brett Martin

By John Del Signore

By Matthew Roberson

And Salone still offers the general public a unique opportunity to engage with luxury fashion in a way exclusive fashion week events do not. This week, anyone who pre-registered could go to Loro Piana’s Brera headquarters to see an exhibition of couches and chairs by pioneering Italian architect Cini Boeri. Or to the Palazzo Versace on via Gesù to see the brand’s opulent “conversation sofas” in the mansion where Gianni used to keep an apartment, accompanied by an audio tour marking significant moments in Versace history. It’s no wonder the furniture crowd is starting to grumble about the fashion world’s Salone encroachment, as I heard a number of times on the aperitivo circuit. The fashion brands are simply putting up huge numbers. Last year, when Bottega Veneta unveiled a Gaetano Pesce installation at its Milan flagship, 11,000 people registered to pass through, and a Bottega rep expected as big a draw this week. (100 editions of the wood stools were for sale for €2,500; 60 special leather-wrapped versions cost €12,000.)

Whether fashion’s relationship with Milan Design Week will last for the long haul is an open question. Show Notes readers may recall that back in 2022 I called Art Basel Miami Beach the “fifth fashion week.” Last year, the energy fizzled as the art market cooled. One thing is for sure: fashion editors will certainly keep coming back as long as Salone continues to resemble one big cocktail party. And if this year was any indication, the fashion world’s massive cultural gravity is only getting stronger. It is clear that the biggest luxury brands can still draw outside industries and events into their orbit.

Not all brands treated Salone as a marketing exercise. Starting Sunday, Prada held its third annual Frames symposium, inviting guest speakers to the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum to lead discussions on the idea of the home. “The home is no longer merely a source of comfort; it acts as a shelter and an infrastructure of services. This constantly evolving, dynamic space is where the socio-economic norms that underpin communities have historically taken shape,” read a press release. On Tuesday, the architect Marina Otera Verzier led an engaging Prada Frames session on the conceptual possibilities of the bathroom. It was extremely interesting—or so I was told. Every single lecture across the two days I was in town had long since been booked.

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‘Like eating too much chocolate’: Guardian readers on Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department

‘Bland’ or ‘absolutely breathtaking’? Our readers are divided over Swift’s epically long, richly detailed new album

‘One of her best albums, lyrically’

As someone who has been a Swiftie for over a decade, my initial impression is that this album is one of her best lyrically, but production-wise it can get a bit repetitive by the end. While Folklore, Evermore and Midnights were full of either fictional tales or vague reminiscences, The Tortured Poets Department is a clear return to her old style of extremely personal, confessional songwriting, but still retaining the poetic lyricism she’s acquired in recent years. Some critics might find the album boring or confusing, but I think the fans familiar with her past work will have an easier time understanding the little details and references, and will have a great time analysing them. Elena, 23, Spain

‘She speaks to us all regardless of age’

I loved the lyrics, which are most definitely poetic in the best sense of the word. Moving elegies as well as joyous numbers. The compositions are beautifully constructed with the piano being the perfect instrument to lend gravity and pathos to the songs. Regardless of which lover Taylor may be singing about, the thoughts and feelings she expresses speak to all of us regardless of age. We’ve all experienced similar times in our lives. Lorraine Kennedy, 74, Australia

‘Her voice has grown more ethereal’

I came across the beautiful Folklore album when it came out, and loved the Aaron Dessner influence. The Tortured Poets Department follows the pattern of Swift’s clever, intelligent and rarely cliched lyrics with a voice that has grown more ethereal as she has matured. This album could be criticised for its length. It has taken me two evenings to get through it and it is a bit like eating far too much chocolate. I am going to enjoy nibbling my way through subsequent listens. David, Sussex

‘I’ve giggled, cried and felt her anger’

Absolutely breathtaking. A book of poetry set to melody and pure balm for the soul. Whether you follow Taylor’s life closely or not (I don’t really), the words and themes are so relatable. Truly, she is a genius songwriter. Lines like “better to be safe rather than starry eyed” just punch you in the gut. For the first time since I was a teenager, I’ve played an album on repeat for two days in a row and I’m still not sick of it. I’ve giggled, cried and felt her anger. My favourite song of them all is The Black Dog, closely followed by The Prophecy, but I can’t fault one of them. Keri Bainborough, 39, Lincoln

‘Bland and samey’

I wouldn’t call myself a fan but I find her lyrics interesting. On this album, they seem to be the focus. Certainly the rest of the music is bland, samey, and seems to exist as a second-thought accompaniment. At the same time, it seems a pity that a writer so intelligent, so creative and so important to her fanbase has so little of significance to say – and so much of it about failed relationships. I believe she’s an artist with more to say. She has the money to stop chasing popularity and take an unexpected turn. I’d like to see that. Matt, Bradford

‘The quality and quantity of her output is off the scale’

Most mass appeal phenomena tend to rely on dumbing down. But in Taylor Swift we have the opposite. The quality and quantity of her output is off the scale. She has managed to write and record 31 new songs in the middle of a world tour of three-hour shows, as well as completing a couple of rerecorded TV albums. And for the fan-dads like me, how fantastic to find her making a reference to The Downtown Lights by the Blue Nile. It’s a song from an album called Hats, which since 1989 has proved to be one of my most loyal friends in life. I hope a new generation of Swifties will be introduced to their unique music – strangely comforting and melancholic at the same time. Pat, Bristol

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‘It’s very dense’

It’s very dense, like all of her albums but even more so. It seems a bit repetitive of her old material though: I am hearing melodies, rhythms, chord progressions and riffs she has used before. And the lyrics seem a bit indulgent – but that’s just Taylor, bless her. Her material is always so subtle that until you find your way into the songs, you don’t hear the detail, which is where the genius (hopefully) lies. Leon Berrange, London

‘Her most unrelatable yet’

I was disappointed by the sonic unimaginativeness and the similarity of the production to her last few albums. Anthology is the sole reason this won’t be a one-time listen for me. It makes no sense to me to promote and release the first 16 tracks as the normal album, while consigning the much better 15 songs to streaming only. I also found this album her most unrelatable yet (despite also having survived the breakdown of a six-year relationship). It doesn’t help that one of the main subjects of the album is someone who many people find unlikeable and unpleasant for his views along other things. This Swiftie is disappointed and hopes some creative re-evaluation is in order for the future. I don’t need an album every six months: I would rather wait for a masterpiece. Marie, Cambridgeshire

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Why Your Big Sister Resents You

“Eldest daughter syndrome” assumes that birth order shapes who we are and how we interact. Does it?

By Catherine Pearson

Catherine Pearson is a younger daughter who still leans on her older sister for guidance all the time.

In a TikTok video that has been watched more than 6 million times, Kati Morton, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Santa Monica, Calif., lists signs that she says can be indicative of “eldest daughter syndrome.”

Among them: an intense feeling of familial responsibility, people-pleasing tendencies and resentment toward your siblings and parents.

On X, a viral post asks : “are u happy or are u the oldest sibling and also a girl”?

Firstborn daughters are having a moment in the spotlight , at least online, with memes and think pieces offering a sense of gratification to responsible, put-upon big sisters everywhere. But even mental health professionals like Ms. Morton — herself the youngest in her family — caution against putting too much stock in the psychology of sibling birth order, and the idea that it shapes personality or long term outcomes.

“People will say, ‘It means everything!’ Other people will say, ‘There’s no proof,’” she said, noting that eldest daughter syndrome (which isn’t an actual mental health diagnosis) may have as much to do with gender norms as it does with birth order. “Everybody’s seeking to understand themselves, and to feel understood. And this is just another page in that book.”

What the research says about birth order

The stereotypes are familiar to many of us: Firstborn children are reliable and high-achieving; middle children are sociable and rebellious (and overlooked); and youngest children are charming and manipulative.

Studies have indeed found ties between a person’s role in the family lineup and various outcomes, including educational attainment and I.Q . (though those scores are not necessarily reliable measures of intelligence ), financial risk tolerance and even participation in dangerous sports . But many studies have focused on a single point in time, cautioned Rodica Damian, a social-personality psychologist at the University of Houston. That means older siblings may have appeared more responsible or even more intelligent simply because they were more mature than their siblings, she said, adding that the sample sizes in most birth order studies have also been relatively small.

In larger analyses, the link between birth order and personality traits appears much weaker. A 2015 study looking at more than 20,000 people in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States found no link between birth order and personality characteristics — though the researchers did find evidence that older children have a slight advantage in I.Q. (So, eldest daughters, take your bragging rights where you can get them.)

Dr. Damian worked on a different large-scale study, also published in 2015 , that included more than 370,000 high schoolers in the United States. It found slight differences in personality and intelligence, but the differences were so small, she said, that they were essentially meaningless. Dr. Damian did allow that cultural practices such as property or business inheritance (which may go to the first born) might affect how birth order influences family dynamics and sibling roles.

Still, there is no convincing some siblings who insist their birth order has predestined their role in the family.

After her study published, Dr. Damian appeared on a call-in radio show. The lines flooded with listeners who were delighted to tell her how skewed her findings were.

“Somebody would say: ‘You’re wrong! I’m a firstborn and I’m more conscientious than my siblings!’ And then someone else would call in and say, ‘You’re wrong, I’m a later-born and I’m more conscientious than my siblings!” she said.

What personal experience says

Sara Stanizai, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Long Beach, Calif., runs a virtual group with weekly meet-ups, where participants reflect on how they believe their birth order has affected them and how it may be continuing to shape their romantic lives, friendships and careers.

The program was inspired by Ms. Stanizai’s experience as an eldest daughter in an Afghan-American family, where she felt “parentified” and “overly responsible” for her siblings — in part because she was older, and in part because she was a girl .

While Ms. Stanizai acknowledged that the research around birth order is mixed, she finds it useful for many of her clients to reflect on their birth order and how they believe it shaped their family life — particularly if they felt hemmed in or saddled by certain expectations.

Her therapy groups spend time reflecting on questions like: How does my family see me? How do I see myself? Can we talk about any discrepancies in our viewpoints, and how they shape family dynamics? For instance, an older sibling might point out that he or she is often the one to plan family vacations. A younger sibling might point out that he or she often feels pressured into going along with whatever the rest of the group wants.

Whether or not there is evidence that birth order determines personality traits is almost beside the point, experts acknowledged.

“I think people are just looking for meaning and self-understanding,” Ms. Stanizai said. “Horoscopes, birth order, attachment styles” are just a few examples, she said. “People are just looking for a set of code words and ways of describing their experiences.”

Catherine Pearson is a Times reporter who writes about families and relationships. More about Catherine Pearson

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