Freddie Mercury's Boundary-Pushing Costumes Take Center Stage at the Victoria and Albert Museum to Mark the 80th Anniversary of His Birth

Eight ensembles from the Queen frontman’s career will be displayed across six stops in the London museum’s permanent galleries, offering a glimpse into the clothes behind his legendary stage persona August 27, 2026 10:34 a.m. Freddie Mercury in the "Made in Heaven" music video Simon Fowler © Mercury Songs Ltd On August 9, 1986, the rock band Queen performed live at Knebworth Park in England. Lead singer Freddie Mercury appeared onstage in white pants and a bright yellow military-style jacket—one of his signature looks from that year’s Magic Tour—and belted out hits like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions.” The concert turned out to be Mercury’s last performance with Queen. Within a year, the musician had been diagnosed as HIV-positive. He died of bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS on November 24, 1991, at age 45. Mercury is chiefly remembered for his voice and music, but his stage presence was also inextricably linked to his colorful, boundary-pushing clothes. The yellow military-style jacket, the silver sequined catsuit associated with his 1977-79 tours and the white tank top he wore while performing at Live Aid in 1985 have all been reproduced in pop art, memorabilia and Halloween costumes alike. Now, Mercury’s wardrobe is taking the spotlight at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. Beginning in October, several weeks after the 80th anniversary of Mercury’s birth, the museum’s South Kensington location will display eight looks spanning his career. Titled “Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things,” the exhibition will unfold across six “stops” in the museum’s permanent galleries. Freddie Mercury in the "Made in Heaven" music video Simon Fowler © Mercury Songs Ltd “The clothes and costumes to be displayed at the V&A tell a hugely important part of his story both on and off the stage,” Mary Austin, Mercury’s longtime friend and onetime fiancée, says in a statement. “Never mere accoutrements, his costumes and clothes were essential to his performances, creative vision and wider self-expression, carefully designed to create a lasting visual and emotional impact that has reached across the generations and still reverberates today.” Austin collaborated with the V&A on the exhibition, lending seven Mercury looks from her personal collection. The six stops will span the 1970s and 1980s, with each showcasing “an iconic moment in Mercury’s career,” per the statement. The looks will be displayed on custom mannequins dynamically posed to evoke the Queen frontman’s stage presence. Visitors will be able to see a black-and-white ensemble that Mercury wore during Queen’s early years, which was later featured on the cover of the band’s debut album. In a 2000 interview, lead guitarist Brian May recalled the decision to present Mercury in monochrome, saying, “I remember thinking very consciously, ‘Freddie as singer will be our figurehead. Let’s use him as such.’” Did you know? Queen’s logo Freddie Mercury designed the famous Queen crest himself. A trained art student, Mercury combined the zodiac signs of the four band members with a large letter “Q” and a phoenix to create the emblem. Also on display will be the white “Mercury Wing” catsuit donned by the musician during Queen’s mid-1970s Night at the Opera Tour and in the music video for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” As designer Wendy Edmonds recalled, “Freddie wanted to look like the god of Mercury. … He bought fabric from Borovick’s in Broadwick Street in London. … It was a stretch satin, skintight, with a low neck and a zip.” The outfit was one of several elaborate stage ensembles that Mercury wore during Queen’s rise to stardom. “As the records became more successful and the response grew stronger, his confidence deepened, and his performance settled,” Austin writes in the forthcoming book A Life in Lyrics. “What I saw now was an artist continuously developing while the seed of who he was stayed intact. The clothes were part of that exploration. Freddie understood early on that he wasn’t just wearing clothes; he was providing an image to match the scale of the space and the vastness of the crowd. He was there to entertain, and everything about what he wore fed into that.” Mercury's clothes were part of his artistic exploration, longtime friend Mary Austin says. Victoria and Albert Museum / David TanShinko Music Costume designer Julian Day, who worked on the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, tells Vogue Adria’s Tara Đukić that Mercury didn’t follow “fashion in the traditional sense.” Instead, he “showed a different way of dressing, beyond what was considered the norm. I think it is very difficult for people who did not live through that era to understand just how underground it all was.” In addition to stage outfits, the exhibition features accessories and pieces from the singer’s personal wardrobe, which “offer a glimpse of the man behind the Mercury persona,” according to the statement. Mercury’s experimentation with clothes extended beyond the stage: As the Guardian’s Caroline Coon wrote in 1974, he showed up to an interview in “tight oyster-gray satin pants, an antique market cream satin blouse and a scarlet velvet Victorian bed jacket.” Other highlights of the exhibition include an opulent crown and cloak designed by Diana Moseley for the Magic Tour. Mercury told Moseley that he wanted “a real crown,” the designer recalled in Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own. He said, “Let’s give it a grandiose, Napoleonic coronation.” “Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things” will be on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from October 24, 2026, through January 17, 2027. Freddie Mercury on the Magic Tour in 1986 Denis O’Regan You Might Also Like Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. More about: British History Designers Exhibitions Exhibits Fashion London Museums Music Musical History Musicians Pop Culture Rock and Roll Rock Musicians