Punk to Pop runs at V&A South Kensington from 13 March 2027 to 2 January 2028.
Around 300 objects will explore music, art and fashion from 1972 to 1985.
Highlights include Mick Jones’ first electric guitar and George Michael’s stage costumes.
Opening in March 2027, the London exhibition will explore the sounds, styles and subcultures that shaped 1972 to 1985.
London’s cultural calendar is getting a rebellious addition. The V&A will open Punk to Pop at its South Kensington museum on Saturday, 13 March 2027, bringing together music, art and fashion from a period when underground ideas helped reshape mainstream culture. Running until 2 January 2028, the exhibition spans the years 1972 to 1985.
Around 300 objects will feature across three acts, taking visitors from the flamboyance of glam rock and disco into the worlds of punk, Northern Soul, goth and the New Romantics. The story then moves towards the international reach of pop, tracing how the sounds and styles of the 1970s fed into the following decade.
Stage costumes, photography, music videos and graphic design will sit alongside objects linked to the Sex Pistols, The Slits, The Specials, Joy Division, Wham! and Eurythmics. Theatrical staging and a headset sound experience will help bring these different scenes to life.
Highlights range from Mick Jones’ first electric guitar to handwritten lyrics by Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis and Sex Pistols artwork by Jamie Reid. Photographs of Grace Jones by Andy Warhol will appear alongside clothing worn by Sylvester. There will also be costumes worn by Roxy Music’s Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry, Blondie’s Debbie Harry and George Michael, whose featured stage outfits have never previously been displayed.
Design fans can also look out for Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s Pirates collection and Peter Saville’s sleeve for Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. A model for David Bowie’s proposed Serious Moonlight tour set adds another dimension, showing how performance extended beyond the clothes artists wore to the worlds built around them.
Behind the costumes and chart success, Punk to Pop will examine the social conditions that shaped this creativity. Austerity and political uncertainty form the backdrop to a generation finding new ways to express itself, with a DIY approach, changing technology and a multicultural society helping to open up possibilities. For anyone interested in the relationship between what we hear and what we wear, this is one to bookmark.
Where: V&A, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2RL
When: 13 March 2027 to 2 January 2028
Contact: www.vam.ac.uk