About the Project:
I was commissioned to make a series of wigs for the “The Music is Black” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum which opened on 18th April 2026 and runs until 3rd January 2027. The wigs featured on this page were for the singers and sisters “Mel and Kim”. Melanie and Kim Appleby were a highly successful British dance-pop duo who achieved global chart success between 1986 and 1988. Known for their distinctive style, streetwise fashion, and high-energy choreography, their career was tragically cut short when Melanie passed away from cancer-related pneumonia in 1990 at just 23 years old.
Mel and Kim defined the late-1980s British pop aesthetic with their “street-smart, high-fashion” style. Moving away from the typical over-the-top, colourful neon 1980s look, the sisters opted for a sophisticated, urban look styled primarily in monochromatic tones. They paired their street fashion with tall, high-volume “pineapple” high ponytails or heavily texturised hair sticking out under their hats. This style was the one that I was asked to recreate for the exhibition.
KIM’S WIG
MEL’S WIG
About:
- The wigs were made to fix onto fibreglass heads.
- They had to be made in two parts: one part for the hair underneath the brims of the hats; and the other for the “pineapple” ponytails sticking out the open brims on top.
- They were constructed onto frames made of Rigeline boning for the top section, and ribbon for the bottom.
- Linen bookcloth was painted and used to create the styles.
In addition to the Mel and Kim wigs featured here, I also made a wig for the gospel singer Karen Gibson for the same exhibition which you can see here. The “Music is Black” project as a whole and how I made these wigs can soon be read in a blog post on my website, I will add a link as soon as it is live.
All images © Peter Kelleher and Sarah Duncan at the V&A Museum, 2026.