David Bowie Exhibit Opens in London

"I can’t decide whether I’m in awe of his talent or if I just really fancy him rotten," Elly Jackson, one half of pop duo La Roux, mused Wednesday night at the opening party for the David Bowie retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Jackson, who was channeling Bowie in his Thin White Duke days in a vintage YSL jacket and white trousers, appears in the exhibition herself, with her red hair and in a Pierrot collar reminiscent of the costume Bowie wore in his "Ashes to Ashes" video.

Tracey Emin recounted how, in her youth, she would get drunk on sherry and sing his songs at the top of her lungs. "Whenever I felt alone or weird or f***ed up, David Bowie was someone that I could relate to," she told the crowd, which included Erdem Moralioglu, Laura Carmichael, Romola Garai, and Pam Hogg.

Barbara Hulanicki emerged from the exhibit feeling quite emotional. "There’s so much history," she said, "All those songs. He used to come into the [Biba] shop, and the girls were so blasé about it, I’d have to drag it out of them."

Inside the exhibition, Tilda Swinton was coming to terms with the high-tech audio guide that senses where you are in the exhibition and plays accordingly.

Meanwhile, Bella Freud recounted the ways that Bowie has inspired her knitwear designs. "I did a lightning bolt one season, and one that said Star Man,” she recounted. The show officially opens March 23 and runs through August 11. – wwd