London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of the career of one of pop’s great innovators. David Bowie Is will feature more than 300 pieces of costume, photography, hand-written lyric sheets, and set design together in one place for the first time. Documenting Bowie’s almost peerless capacity for reinvention, expect to be taken on a tour of music and culture spanning five decades, from the early years of an unknown Brixtonite named David Jones, to The Thin White Duke, the cult of Ziggy Stardust, and his later work up to the present day. The recent announcement of a new album—from which a single, Where Are We Now?, has already been released—looks set to make exhibition tickets in even higher demand. They can be booked through the V&A website.

The retrospective runs from March 23 through July 28.

Cromwell Rd. London, SW7 2RL; 44-20/7942-2000.