‘She could have lived in these galleries to create the music’: Taylor Swift in among the V&A permanent collection

The Kensington Valhalla, the Raphael Cartoons , Paul Delaroche’s St Cecilia and the Angels , the pre-Raphaelites, Foggini’s Samson and the Philistines : these are just some of the items in conversation with costumes and artefacts from Taylor Swift’s archive at a new V&A Museum exhibition. Taylor Swift: Songbook Trail presents 13 moments from across the 34-year-old musician’s career. Rather than contain them in a single exhibition, the pieces – from tour attire to instantly recognisable outfits from Swift’s album art and videos and even a fake beard – are spread across the entire footprint of the museum, engaging with the permanent collections.

“It’s the first time we’ve done this kind of theatrical installation for a contemporary artist,” said curator Kate Bailey. Organising it entailed plenty of other firsts: “I’ve never displayed a microphone before,” she said – not least one adorned with a gold serpent, as designed for Swift’s 2018 Reputation tour.

The exhibition came together unusually fast, said Bailey, conceived in response to “this summer moment of Taylor Swift being in the UK” on the Eras tour – which ran in June and returns for a final London stint in August: “It felt like something we could make happen across the museum because of the nature of the chapters of her career and the way Taylor works with curiosity and Easter eggs.” While thousands of fans were unable to score pricey Eras tickets, the V&A exhibition is free, and intended to engage younger visitors with their collections. Displaying items such as microphones and instruments, said Bailey, fit the V&A’s emphasis on the power of creativity. “I feel very passionate about bringing that in. She’s a songwriter. This is the guitar. This is all it takes – some imagination, some talent – and you can go wherever.”

Pitching to Swift’s team was “a very creative, straightforward process”, said Bailey, with pieces drawn from Swift’s personal archive (Swift herself was not personally involved). “It’s very encouraging that she has an archive because not all artists keep their stuff and look after it so brilliantly, but she does, and we were given great access.” She described the exhibition as “very poetic and literary as opposed to bombastic like Wembley will be – it’s a very different journey through chapters.”

On Tuesday morning, as technicians made final touches, Bailey stood before a tableau centred on Swift’s 2019 album Lover. Against the Valhalla mosaics, all by male artists, Swift’s drag outfit, fake facial hair and director’s chair from her self-directed video for The Man – plus her MTV Video Music award for direction – stood flanked by sculptures of Venus and Diana. “It’s quite playful and speaks to the patriarchal presentation of the male artist and Taylor’s relationship with the patriarchy,” said Bailey.

A mixture of stage costumes and lesser-seen outfits gave the exhibition “a combination of intimacy and spectacle”, she said. “I presented it as feeling like she’s just left the room, which feels true to the way that she communicates with fans.” A whistle-stop dash through the museum took in two battle-worn stage outfits from the 1989 tour, still wrapped in protective paper, and the dress from the cover of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) displayed in the gilded music room of Norfolk House.

The cardigan worn in the video for Cardigan, from Swift’s 2020 lockdown album Folklore, was draped over a piano stool. “Having a mannequin didn’t feel right,” said Bailey. “It’s more expressive on the stool – there’s the sense that she’s been here, as if it’s about to come to life.” The piano itself was covered in real moss (made safely fire-retardant, another first for the museum) and softly playing birdsong to echo that album’s woodsy aesthetic. Next door, the dress from the Willow music video – from Folklore’s 2020 sister album, Evermore – contrasted with Francis Danby’s Disappointed Love and other “Victorian genre paintings telling stories through art”, said Bailey. “It almost feels like she lived in those galleries to create the music.”

Bailey was particularly taken with the black vegan leather Victoriana dress from the video to this year’s single Fortnight, from the album The Tortured Poets Department, which provides a dramatic conclusion to the museum trail. “You think, why did she choose an 1890s dress as opposed to an 1870s dress?” she wondered aloud. “The 1890s are a really distinct moment for the beginning of the emancipation of women, they’re starting to get more jobs; the typewriters in the video nod to more roles for women.”

Bailey curated last year’s Diva exhibition at the V&A, and in the programme notes, cited French critic Théophile Gautier’s characterisation of the diva as “‘thrice gifted’, a perfect fusion of music, words and image”. Does Swift count as a diva?

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“Each generation redefines the diva and she is a pioneer on so many levels, whether that’s with her songwriting, the re-recording, her images and aesthetics,” said Bailey. What’s different, she said, was that “you can’t separate her from the fandom. Divas are worshipped, but with Swift that relationship is a dialogue. It’s more embracing – people feel like she’s in their bedroom with them.” (The V&A’s recently hired Swiftie superfans, however, weren’t part of putting together this show.)

And in contrast to how many pop superstars use persona – such as David Bowie, subject of a 2013 V&A show – “you always see Taylor Swift” in her outfits, said Bailey. “That’s really powerful and authentic, whether you’re looking at the country debut and her cowboy boots or any other era, it’s still absolutely Taylor.”

• Taylor Swift: Songbook Trail is at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London , from 27 July

• This article originally featured in Swift Notes , the Guardian’s Taylor Swift newsletter