Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
HENRY Cole, the Benthamite founding father of the Victoria and Albert Museum, sought to offer the British populace a moral education through the study of beautiful and useful objects.
Whether an exhibition devoted to Kylie Minogue will improve “public taste” in quite the way Cole intended has been a matter for speculation.
Come February (2007), an exhibition simply called Kylie, imported from the Melbourne Arts Centre in Australia, will focus on Minogue’s spectacular red-carpet and performance outfits, some of which were created by British designers such as Julien Macdonald and John Galliano, and many of which feature headdresses by British milliner Stephen Jones.
The show, consisting of 200 objects including 50 costumes and 60 photographs, will display the overalls Minogue wore in Neighbours and a pair of gold hotpants bought for less than one dollar in a second hand store and wore in the video for Spinning Around.
The exhibition is not in any way a frivolous crowd pleaser but a serious look at “how an image of a very successful pop star has been constructed”, according to a V&A spokeswoman.
· Charlotte Higgins
