The much anticipated David Bowie exhibition at London’s V&A museum is being enjoyed by record-breaking numbers of visitors. We swelled those numbers by taking the London College of Fashion‘s Access Fashion Business students, many of whom were newbies to the wonders of the Bowie!
The exhibition claims not to be a retrospective but uses David Bowie’s own vast archive- including hand written lyrics to many of his iconic songs, stage costumes and ‘sound and vision’- to explore the influences on, and influence of Bowie.
Accompanying the exhibition are a range of talks and activities. Curators Jeffrey Marsh and Victoria Broackes treated a captivated audience to a glimpse behind the scenes of staging the exhibition- their visit to the David Bowie archive in New York, how they selected artefacts to exhibit and explained the innovative audio-visual experience visitors enjoy as they tour the exhibition. They also shared their surprise and delight at the amazing coincidence of their opening coinciding with Bowie’s latest (highly secretive) album release- The Next Day.
The fabulous Theatre of Fashion‘s Amber Jane Butchart in conversation with Helene Thian as part of the V&A Bowie weekender explored Bowie’s interest in kabuki theatre and his creative collaboration with Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto which spawned many iconic costumes.
The V&A shop features some fun products- I love the Bowie paper doll book.
All the world’s got Bowie-fever including Vogue Japan– the April 2013 edition features ‘Fashion Warrior’–  a Bowie fashion spread.
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