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Monday 10am - 5:45pm Tuesday 10am - 5:45pm Wednesday 10am - 5:45pm Thursday 10am - 5:45pm Friday 10am - 5:45pm Saturday 10am - 5:45pm Sunday 10am - 5:45pm

Victoria and Albert Museum

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The V&A is a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity.
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Our mission is to champion design and creativity in all its forms, advance cultural knowledge, and inspire makers, creators and innovators everywhere. V&A South Kensington is a world of extraordinary global creativity, with unmissable exhibitions, experiences and educational programmes for all. One of London's most iconic buildings, it is home to national collections of art, design, fashion, photography and furniture to theatre, performance, architecture, and ceramics, as well as the UK's National Art Library. It is a place where everyone can experience a story of creativity that spans 5,000 years and every creative discipline, which brings that story to life through programmes and activities for all ages and specialisms, and world-leading research and conservation.

05/10/2026

Takahiro Iwasaki is one of Japan’s emerging contemporary artists, whose intricate sculptures explore the relationship between architecture, memory, history and illusion.

In his Reflection Model series, Iwasaki recreates sacred Japanese buildings as highly precise three-dimensional models, suspended alongside their reflected forms. Rather than depicting a reflection as something fleeting or distorted, Iwasaki presents it as a solid, frozen image, bringing reality and illusion together as one sculptural form.

The work on display in Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific draws on Iwasaki’s deep engagement with Japanese craftsmanship, particularly the traditions of temple carpentry, as well as his experience growing up in Hiroshima.

Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific runs until 10 January 2027 at V&A South Kensington.

03/10/2026

Dior After Dark 🌙✨

Cut from midnight-blue velvet, this strapless gown is deceptively simple. Look closer, and you’ll find delicate embroidery by Rébé, including tiny velvet birds’ nests filled with clusters of pearl ‘eggs’.

For Dior, the magic was in the detail. Elaborate embellishment demanded extraordinary patience: ‘a ball dress may be entirely covered with millions of paillettes, or pearls, each one of which has to be put on separately’.

In 1950s Paris, embroidery, feathers, ribbons and other luxury details were crafted by specialist workshops, continuing traditions that stretched back centuries. Couturiers would select designs from seasonal samples, turning them into the starting point for new creations.

Bosphore, Christian Dior, Paris, 1956.

02/10/2026

Hello, it’s Vivienne calling 📞

A phone with a fashion twist. This 2004 Motorola V600 was transformed with an unmistakable Vivienne Westwood-designed pattern and V&A × Westwood branding to celebrate the V&A’s major Westwood retrospective.

Only 99 handsets of this design were ever made. This phone represents an early instance of a major fashion brand collaborating with a major technology brand to create an indispensable personal accessory that combines essential day-to-day functionality with contemporary fashion branding.

Get an up-close look at V600 Clamshell Camera Phone through our ‘Order an Object’ service at V&A East Storehouse.

01/10/2026

An Autumn chill is in the air.🍂

Which coat from our collection would you reach for to keep you wrapped up and cozy?

1. Evening ensemble with coat and stole, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli, Paris, France, 1937.

2. Knitted evening coat, designed by Kaffe Fassett, Great Britain, 1979.

3. Woollen coat lined with image of Madonna and Child with Saints Julian and Lawrence by Gentile da Fabriano, screenprinted onto satin by Ken McDonald, London, 1998.

4. Coat and dress ensemble, cream wool worsted with blue plastic trim, Courrèges, French, 1965.

5. Man's belted coat, cheviot wool tweed, Burberry, London, 1970s.

30/09/2026

Tiny book, big story.

Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, these extraordinary miniature ‘books’ are a contemporary take on the children’s paper peep show. They open out like an accordion to create an illusion of depth, so the vivid scenes of Alice’s adventures unfold before your eyes. 🐇

Peep shows have been popular since the 19th century, and artists are still playing with the format today, like the one in this video.

See the full film to explore more miniature books via the link in bio.

Object details:

‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’, Maryline Poole Adams, Poole Press, 1989

27/09/2026

Which pair would you wear? 👠

Roger Vivier and Christian Dior’s creative collaboration produced some of the most iconic shoes of the 1950s and ’60s. But which pair from the collaboration would you choose?

1. Shoes, pink satin embroidered with beads and silk, 1958-1960.

2. Shoes, coral pink silk satin embroidered with coral beads, sequins and diamantés, 1959.

3. Shoes of embroidered silk grosgrain, 1958-1962.

4. Evening shoes in embroidered brown silk satin, 1962.

Roger Vivier was a pioneering luxury shoe designer, widely credited with creating the stiletto heel. He designed shoes for several leading couturiers, including Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s, but it was his work with Christian Dior from 1953–63 that became particularly celebrated.

Vivier was the only one of Dior’s collaborators permitted to have a credit on the final design: ‘Christian Dior crée par Roger Vivier’.

24/09/2026

Esme Creed-Miles and Daisy Edgar-Jones spill the tea on their most embarrassing moments on the set of Sense and Sensibility. We’ve all been there, right?

Subscribe to our YouTube channel V&A UpNext for the full interview with our new Cabinet of Curiosity.

Sense and Sensibility is in cinemas from 25 September.

23/09/2026

TICKETS ON SALE NOW for Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires at V&A South Kensington.

Discover one of the world’s most influential cities. The city once called Constantinople and now called Istanbul was the imperial and religious capital at the heart of two successive empires: the Byzantine (AD 330–1453) and the Ottoman (1453–1922).

This exhibition will explore their distinct yet connected traditions of art and design, built across sixteen centuries. It will follow changes in patronage and production that reflect the ups and downs of the city’s history, and the lasting impact its creative output had in the Christian and Islamic worlds.

Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires is on from 07 November 2026 to 09 May 2027 at V&A South Kensington.

Ticket link in bio. V&A Members go free.

This exhibition has been created in partnership with with the support of The Huo Family Foundation.

22/09/2026

Autumn is in the Air 🍂

The Autumnal equinox is fast approaching, when day and night are almost equal in length, and we begin our gradual journey into longer evenings and darker skies.

John Constable’s Sketch at Hampstead: Evening captures that fleeting moment when daylight begins to fade. Painted around 1820, the work reflects Constable’s fascination with the changing English landscape and the effects of light and atmosphere. Hampstead and its surrounding landscape would become an important source of inspiration for his work.

Visit V&A South Kensington Prints & Drawings Study Room, to request to view John Constable, Sketch at Hampstead: Evening.

20/09/2026

A Casket in Silk, Thread and Pearls 🪡✨

This embroidered casket is an exquisite example of 17th-century English needlework, made by Martha Edlin when she was just 11 years old.
Completed in 1671, Martha embroidered the silk satin panels with coloured silk and metal threads, depicting Music, the four elements and the seven virtues.

Look closely to see raised embroidery, tiny pearls and intricate stitches used to create different textures. Remarkably, some of Martha’s original possessions were still inside.

Visit V&A South Kensington, British Galleries, Room 56, The Djanogly Gallery, to see Martha Edlin's Casket on display.

Address

Cromwell Road, South Kensington
London
SW72RL

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5:45pm
Tuesday	10am - 5:45pm
Wednesday	10am - 5:45pm
Thursday	10am - 5:45pm
Friday	10am - 5:45pm
Saturday	10am - 5:45pm
Sunday	10am - 5:45pm

Website

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

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