To tide my sister and I over until the O2 shows in July we booked tickets to the Simply Madonna exhibition on Saturday. We weren't sure what to expect but we ended up pleasently surprised and had a lovely day out in our nation's capital.

For those that don't know, the exhibition of rare Madonna costumes and memorabilia is on for viewing until 22nd March at the Old Truman Brewery, London. The venue itself is located in the Whitechapel are of East London, which is an odd mix of dodgy kebab shops and off licences on the one hand, and hip urban chic on the other. Think the London locales from the Hung Up video and you'll get a rough idea...the sort of venue Madonna would be proud of. The Old Brewery itself is in the nicer part of the area, surrounded by some trendy bars, odd-ball eateries and vintage clothes shops. A couple of flags outside show you where the entrance is, through a couple of heavy black doors, then follow the sound of pounding Madonna beats up two flights of stairs where Madge themed heaven awaits.

The exhibit itself is nicely spread out in a large ex factory room, nicely lit with a bright array of disco lights, and all backed by a great sound system that played a great mix of old and new Madonna hits the whole time. It took us a good hour and a half to go round and pour over the items, but then I was stopping to have a good nose at everything on display, so I think only a hardcore fan would get true money's worth from it (tickets are around £10). That having been said my missus came along with us and found it just as interesting and she's not really a fan. Included in the items are a whole wall of rare Madonna vinyl, which I loved, two walls of rare Madonna magazine covers, some signed, and two large glass cabinets of ultra rare Madonna collectibles and goods. These really were a fan's wet dream....

...included were collectible items I never knew existied (Like A Prayer offical candle, Desperately Seeking Susan Madonna figures!) along with signed items (an old American Express card in the name of Madonna Ciccone...cut in half of course, haha), and some really interesting hand written stuff from Madonna including an old filofax from the early eighties,contracts, song lyric ideas and even some hand written notes from the Virgin Tour with Madonna describing how she sees the show going (which really were an interesting read, though she has atrocious hand-writing...sorry Madge!). There were rare posters and art, and tour t-shirts and jackets from every era. The real stars were the outfits, alot of them from Evita, but included were the Material Girl pink dress (which is being auctioned on Ebay next month!), the white outfit from the Music video, the American Pie video outfit, the black basque outfit from the Open Your Heart video, the infamous "cone" basques from the Blonde Ambition tour, and two of my faves the red taffeta dress for La Isla Bonita and the crazy stick-loads-of-junk on it Dress You Up dress both from the Who's That Girl tour. There were various other outfits dotted around to.

All in all it was a great visit for this Madonna fan, very interesting indeed and also slightly painful seeing that much Madonna merchandise that I will never own (there were Barbie dolls dotted around the exhibit with mini replicas of many of her famous outfits, which I would love to own!!! lol) The entrance stand also sold posters of the exhibit (£5) a nice t-shit of the event (£15, black for the lads (small, medium or large) with gold print emblem on the front, a grey/purple colour for the ladies) and a really nice program (£10) that showed all the items in the exhibit and gave a nice run over the history of Madge and her costumes. All in all well worth a look if you're a big Madonna fan and fairly local to London, definately recommend a visit....lots of thanks to the organisers, it should keep us going until July!!

Wow,sounds exciting!

recent pic of Madonna with two of the men in her life: boyfriend Jesus and son David,in New York:

lol@ the look on David's face

pics from Simply Madonna exhibit:

Was gonna try and post some of my pics...will upload them soon.

Not sure what I think about that new guy with Madge...seems like a rebound thing. Nice that M can still pull a young fit dude, and why not, she's hot. Must be confusing for the kids though, poor things. Lourdes is looking more like her Mum all the time! Wonder is she'll carry on her Mum's music??

DaveT said:

what a waste of money....

LondonStyle said:

Yeah, if you're not a fan obviously!!!!

Thanks for your review. I've heard mixed things about the show from Madonna fans. Some liked it, but some felt the curator didn't do a good job, since there were a lot of innaccuracies.
A lot of the costumes weren't the ones she wore on stage or in videos, but were protypes or rehearsal things. If you look closely, there are subtle differences between the ones in the exhibit, and the ones Madonna wears on stage or in videos.
Also all the mannequins wearing her costumes look exactly the same. There was no effort to match the hairstyle or makeup she wore at the time with the costume. Madonna's look is very clearly thought out with the costume, the hair and the makeup all working together.
Also, another criticism was that the magazine and record displays were not put in chronological order of her career, so that is a little confusing and doesn't give you a picture of the development of her career over the years, but is very random.