Freddie Mercury’s ‘splendid things’ to go on display at V&A

Queen’s Freddie Mercury Costumes Head to London’s V&A for a Free Autumn Trail

Wanderstayfinder.com – The Victoria and Albert Museum will open a free exhibition trail this autumn devoted to the wardrobe of Freddie Mercury, the late frontman of Queen. Titled Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things, the display runs from 24 October 2026 through 17 January 2027 and coincides with what would have been the singer’s 80th birthday. Eight iconic outfits from across his career — spanning the early 1970s to his final years — will be staged across six individually designed installations, each employing bespoke sets, soundscapes, and lighting to recreate distinct moments from Mercury’s performing life.

The Garments Themselves

Among the pieces on view is the monochrome ensemble Mercury donned for one of Queen’s earliest gigs at Imperial College, the very look that appears on the cover of the band’s self-titled debut album released in 1973. Also featured is the so-called “Mercury Wing” catsuit, a design by Wendy de Smet that Mercury wore throughout the 1975–76 A Night at the Opera tour and that became inseparable from the band’s landmark Bohemian Rhapsody music video. The trail further includes the crown-and-cloak outfit created by Diana Moseley for the 1986 Magic Tour — the same regalia Mercury sported during Queen’s final live show at Knebworth that summer. A costume from the Made in Heaven video, along with assorted accessories drawn from his personal wardrobe, rounds out the collection.

Mary Austin’s Role and Legacy

Seven of the eight looks are being lent by Mary Austin, Mercury’s former fiancée and lifelong confidante. The two first crossed paths in the late 1960s while working within Kensington’s Biba fashion orbit — she was nineteen, he twenty-four. At the time, Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara on 5 September 1946 in Zanzibar, was hawking his own artwork and secondhand garments from a stall in Kensington Market. They became engaged on Christmas Day 1973, the same year Queen issued its debut record. Though the engagement dissolved in the mid-1970s, the pair stayed intimately connected until Mercury’s death in 1991. On his passing, he bequeathed Austin his Kensington residence, Garden Lodge, together with his personal effects.

Austin has spoken publicly about how central costume was to Mercury’s artistic identity. In her forthcoming memoir A Life in Lyrics, scheduled for publication in September, she recalls:

“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.”

She added that the garments slated for the V&A “tell a hugely important part” of his story both on and off stage:

“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.”

Where the Name Comes From

The trail’s title is drawn from a remark Mercury made in 1978, expressing his fascination with ornate, layered aesthetics:

“I like to be surrounded by splendid things. I want to lead a Victorian life surrounded by exquisite clutter.”

That sentiment — a blend of theatrical excess and personal comfort — runs through every era of his wardrobe, from the austere monochrome of his student days to the baroque spectacle of his late-1980s stage persona.

Design and Experience

The physical installations have been conceived by stage and set designer Tom Piper, whose portfolio spans productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Tower of London poppy commemorations, and earlier V&A projects including Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser and the Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail. Each of the six stops will be differentiated through distinct environmental design, ensuring visitors encounter Mercury’s sartorial evolution as a narrative arc rather than a static gallery.

Kate Bailey, the museum’s senior curator of theatre and performance, framed the exhibition as an exploration of Mercury’s deep engagement with art, design, and fashion — interests that extended well beyond the concert stage into his private life. The free admission model, paired with the trail format, positions the display as both a scholarly resource for music historians and an accessible cultural experience for the general public, arriving at a moment when Queen’s catalogue continues to dominate global streaming and touring figures.