Tickets stampede for Kylie's new show

The Victoria and Albert Museum's new exhibition devoted to the style and fashion of Kylie Minogue is the most popular show in the museum's history before it has even opened.

The V&A has already had more than 4,000 advance bookings for the show. So great is the demand from the public to see the changing image of the pop star that the South Kensington gallery has introduced a timed ticketing system, even though the exhibition is free.

Minogue, who has just split up with French actor boyfriend Olivier Martinez, will tonight open the exhibition showcasing her costumes from her two decades in pop.

Pride of place in Kylie - The Exhibition belongs to the denim dungarees from her time as Charlene Robinson in Australian soap Neighbours in the late Eighties, her notorious hotpants from 2000's Spinning Around video and the white hooded jumpsuit she wore in the Can't Get You Out Of My Head video (2001).

The show, which marks the first time the V&A has honoured a performer with an exhibition, throws the spotlight on her collaborations with leading designers including Dolce & Gabbana, Helmut Lang and John Galliano.

The exhibition proved a massive hit in Australia where it toured in 2005 and 2006. The V&A has also replicated her backstage area and dressing room from her current Showgirl Homecoming tour.

The exhibition also shows off a pink Galliano beaded corset and Dolce & Gabbana leopard print catsuit and boxing gloves. In addition, magazine covers, record sleeves, Manolo Blahnik shoes and her 1988 Smash Hits Poll Winners Award are on display.

Much of the material comes from the Kylie Minogue Collection which is maintained for her by her parents. She has said: "Were it not for my parents, I'm sure this collection would be the size of a suitcase rather than an exhibition space."

Minogue's former lovers Jason Donovan and Michael Hutchence barely feature and there is no mention of production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman who wrote and produced the singer's first four albums. Minogue's less successful Nineties period, where she attempted to become Indie Kylie and Dance Kylie, is sparsely represented.

The show's curator Vicky Broakes said today: "This exhibition shows how Kylie has become one of our most popular musical performers by continually changing her image. She takes risks and re-invents herself and this has helped her keep her audience and find a new one."