Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail At The V&A: Review

A fantastically well-crafted new display at the V&A Museum showcases dresses, boots, and musical instruments belonging to singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Rather than taking the form of a traditional exhibition, Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail is a series of 13 individual exhibits throughout the sprawling museum, dotted across different floors and wings — it's a fair amount of walking, so maybe leave the cowboy boots at home. The cynical interpretation of this layout is that it's a ploy to get people visiting corners of the V&A they wouldn't normally see. In reality, it goes deeper than that, with each position exquisitely chosen to reflect and enhance the meaning of the objects on display.

Costumes and clips from the music video for The Man — in which Swift dresses up as a man to decry how differently the media would portray her actions were she male — are cleverly flanked by statues of the goddesses Venus and Diana. A sequinned cape from the Reputation Tour takes centre stage in a room in the British Galleries which is usually home to The Three Graces, subtly turning a space usually reserved for female muses over to a female creator. The Fortnight dress from most recent album The Tortured Poets Department attracts a lot of attention beneath a staircase leading to the National Art Library, home to works by several famous poets. 'Sister' albums Folklore and Evermore are located in adjacent rooms. A dress from the Speak Now era — an album on which Swift is the sole songwriter — is the only display in the room it sits in.

Perhaps most perfectly — or at least, most likely to be appreciated by Swifties — is the placement of artefacts relating to the Midnights album and Swift's rerecords of her own earlier works. A textile vault which is normally closed to the public has been opened for the occasion (for the uninitiated, Swift tends to add previously unreleased 'From the Vault' tracks on to each of her rerecorded albums). It's in here that we find magazine covers featuring Swift, and some of her vinyl covers, as well as further dresses and hats, accompanied by a soundtrack of Swift's music.

There are some nods to London too, if you know where to look... which Swifties do, naturally. The Gucci boots worn by Swift at the London listening party of the Reputation album are here, as is the Oscar de la Renta dress she sported at the London premiere of her Eras Tour film last year.

As with Swift's own work, the more you look, the more there is to see. Each display is flanked by a neon strip of light draped around it, acting as an 'Invisible String', tying all of the pieces together despite their locations in far-flung corners of the museum. Even those with little knowledge of Taylor Swift can find themselves drawn in as they explore the rest of the museum, but it's at this point that a little more context would be welcome: video clips featuring the outfits would add a bit of extra depth to the displays, as would other objects besides clothing and instruments, beautiful though they are.

Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail is a the V&A Museum, Saturday 27 July-Sunday 8 September 2024, and is free to visit. The Eras Tour returns to Wembley Stadium for five nights in August, and there's currently a Taylor on Tour free photo exhibition in Wembley Park.