Eight Freddie Mercury looks. Six stops across the V&A. And you won’t need a ticket to see any of them.
This October, the museum is turning its South Kensington galleries into a free Freddie Mercury trail, bringing together costumes and accessories spanning his career — from the ‘Mercury Wing’ catsuit seen in Bohemian Rhapsody to the crown and cloak worn during Queen’s final tour with Mercury.
The title comes from Mercury himself. “I like to be surrounded by splendid things,” he said in 1978. “I want to lead a Victorian life surrounded by exquisite clutter.”
Developed with Mary Austin, Mercury’s former fiancée, close friend and confidante of 20 years, the trail will feature seven looks loaned by Austin alongside another from the V&A collection. Together they span the 1970s and 80s, tracing the development of a performer for whom clothes became an increasingly important part of the spectacle.
Among the earliest is a monochrome ensemble worn for an early Queen gig at Imperial College and seen on the cover of the band’s 1973 debut album. It will be joined by Wendy de Smet’s famous ‘Mercury Wing’ catsuit, worn during the A Night at the Opera tour of 1975–76 and seen in the video for Bohemian Rhapsody.
At the other end of the story is perhaps Mercury’s ultimate piece of stage regalia: the crown and cloak designed by Diana Moseley and worn during Queen’s Magic Tour, including his final stage appearance with the band at Knebworth in 1986.
The display will also reach into Mercury’s solo career through the costume worn in the Made in Heaven music video, while accessories and pieces from his personal wardrobe will offer a glimpse of the person behind one of rock music’s most carefully constructed stage personas.
Award-winning designer Tom Piper has been brought in to create the installations. Known for his theatre and opera work, the Tower of London poppies and the V&A’s Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser and Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail, Piper will give each stop a distinct theatrical setting, with sound and light incorporated into some of the displays.
“We are thrilled to display Freddie’s most iconic costumes at the V&A, celebrating one of greatest performers and songwriters of all time,” said Kate Bailey, Senior Curator of Theatre and Performance at the V&A. “Reflecting his love of ‘splendid things’ and his passion for art, design and fashion, Freddie will be very at home in the V&A galleries.”
For Austin, the clothes reveal something more than Mercury’s famously flamboyant taste. They chart the increasingly sophisticated construction of Freddie Mercury as a performer.
“As the records became more successful and the response grew stronger, his confidence deepened and his performance settled,” she says. “What I saw now was an artist continuously developing while the seed of who he was stayed intact. The clothes were part of that exploration.”
“Freddie understood early on that he wasn’t just wearing clothes; he was providing an image to match the scale of the space and the vastness of the crowd. He was there to entertain, and everything about what he wore fed into that.”
Austin adds: “As we celebrate Freddie’s legacy in what would have been his 80th year, the clothes and costumes to be displayed at the V&A tell a hugely important part of his story both on and off the stage. Never mere accoutrements, his costumes and clothes were essential to his performances, creative vision, and wider self-expression, carefully designed to create a lasting visual and emotional impact that has reached across the generations and still reverberates today.”
Rather than gathering the clothes into a conventional exhibition, the V&A is dispersing Mercury throughout the museum — fitting, perhaps, for someone whose visual imagination pulled freely from fashion, theatre, art and design.
Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things, 24th October 2026–17th January 2027, V&A South Kensington. FREE
