An image of the within of the David Bowie Centre, a brand new archive on the V&A East Storehouse in London, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, forward of its public opening.
Joanna Chan/AP
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Joanna Chan/AP
Anybody searching for Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and The Man Who Offered The World can now discover all of David Bowie’s personas in the identical place — an unlimited warehouse in East London.
This weekend noticed the opening of the David Bowie Centre in London’s Stratford. It is house to an archive of 90,000 objects that belonged to the long-lasting British rock star, who died in 2016. For the primary time, followers can stand up shut to very large numbers of Bowie’s treasures, from his groundbreaking costumes to his favorite devices.
One such costume is a carefully embroidered silk cream jacket that Bowie wore on the Ziggy Stardust tour, which was created for him by Japanese clothier Kansai Yamamoto – in addition to the pants and booties Bowie wore to finish the outfit. Close by is a Harptone 12-string Jumbo acoustic guitar, which has scratches on it and a damaged string, and which was utilized in considered one of Bowie’s movies for his hit Area Oddity.
Harriet Reed, Curator of Modern Efficiency on the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), with late British musician David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust guitar on the David Bowie Centre within the V&A East Storehouse in London.
V&A Museum
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V&A Museum
Bowie wasn’t only a musician, however an artist, and the gathering can also be house to 1000’s of notes and drawings he made all through his profession, as he moved from one stage persona, full with again story, to the subsequent. He additionally stored artwork despatched to him by followers, in addition to private belongings — together with the important thing to an residence he shared with fellow rockstar Iggy Pop in Berlin within the late Seventies.
“We’re always continuing to learn about him as we work through the archive,” says curator Harriet Reed, who says being on the undertaking for seven years has been a continuing studying course of. “I’ve definitely got a greater understanding of how prolific he was, how insatiable he was in terms of how many projects he wanted to be involved in, how many areas of design or art he wanted to try.” She goes on: “We willl never figure Bowie out, he’ll always be a slight enigma.”
As they sifted via the archive, curators found plans Bowie made for a musical he was engaged on not lengthy earlier than he died. It was tentatively known as the Spectator, and was impressed by artists in London within the early 1700s, that includes British painters of the time, from William Hogarth to Joshua Reynolds.
Reproduction of the ‘Tokyo Pop’ jumpsuit made by Kansai Yamamoto and worn by David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust.
Richard Davis/Victoria and Albert Museum
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Richard Davis/Victoria and Albert Museum
In some methods, the David Bowie Centre is extra like a library than a museum — earlier than they arrive, guests can go browsing and select as much as 5 objects they need to view, that are then dropped at them in a lecture room. The centre additionally has a everlasting exhibition, with show instances showcasing his affect on trend and tradition. For this opening, a kind of instances has been curated by Nile Rodgers, who labored with Bowie on his “Let’s Dance” album.
Lead curator Dr Madeleine Haddon is from New York, the place she used to work on the Museum of Fashionable Artwork. Haddon says she hopes that in addition to Bowie aficionados, native individuals from Stratford will come and discover inspiration too. Stratford is in Newham, an East London borough the place poverty is comparatively excessive, and which was renovated for the London 2012 Olymics. It ought to assist that tickets are free.
“We are especially engaged with thinking about how we create a museum that feels welcoming and inspiring to young people and is also a resource for the next generations of artists, designers and makers, especially those who are here within East London.”
When he was alive, David Bowie had an affiliation with the Victoria & Albert museum, which placed on an exhibition of his work in its predominant website in West London’s Kensington in 2013. When Bowie died, he left the V&A his archive, and specialists have been working via it ever since.
A customer sees a few of David Bowie’s awards in storage, at their Order an Object appointment on the V&A museum.
David Parry/V&A
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David Parry/V&A
One of many first individuals to get to go to the David Bowie Centre was Linda McLean, a British trend journalist. “As a fan from the 1970s, it’s very emotional in a way because it brings back your youth,” McLean stated. She credit Bowie and his musical contemporaries Roxy Music with serving to encourage her to go to artwork faculty and forge a profession in trend.
“The thing about this centre is that you can go online choose which things you want to see before you go, and you can actually get up really close to the items — some of them you can actually handle,” McLean says. “For any David Bowie fan, that’s an extraordinary thing, to be able to be within inches of the garments he actually wore.”
McLean says the large variety of artefacts within the David Bowie Centre exhibits Bowie was an archivist of his personal life and work, and an artist who cared about his legacy. “I actually couldn’t believe how much stuff he kept… I don’t know anyone who does that” McLean stated. “He was a bit of a hoarder… there was a very methodical mind in there, as well as being transgressive.”
Flowers and private tributes exterior David Bowie’s former house in Berlin left by followers quickly after his demise in January 2016.
Nick Spicer/NPR
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Nick Spicer/NPR
Alan Edwards, who was David Bowie’s publicist for nearly 35 years, says it is a place the person himself would have appreciated. “This is exactly what David would have wanted… he wasn’t a person that was driven by latest chart positions and all that… his influence and the way he touched people was really important to him,” Edwards says.
Edwards wrote a memoir which covers his time working with Bowie, and says being colleagues solely made him extra certain of Bowie’s genius. “David deserves to be looked at like this, and he is the only music person, certainly in Britain, that’s ever been treated in this way… He will be with us as long as there’s a human race. Now, he’s in that very rarefied sort of air, the canon of great artists like Salvador Dali, Beethoven, Mozart, you know, Elvis, maybe he will be with us forever.”
Producer Biba Kang contributed to this report.
