Madonna is in a reflective mood. Not only is she about to embark on her very first greatest hits tour this year, she also promises the self-directed biopic she’s spent years working on is still on the way in some form or another. So it only makes sense that the Queen of Pop would be spending some time in her own extensive archives. Luckily for us (and her 18.9 million Instagram followers), she provided a rare peek inside her storage.
Personal archives seem to be all the rage among celebrities lately. Kim Kardashian has a dedicated warehouse, while Chloë Sevigny uses an archiving service. Apparently Madge has been decades ahead of the game, because the space she showed off on Instagram is massive, with rows of rows of what we assume are costumes in garment bags and even more space dedicated to shelved filing boxes. We can only guess about the treasures stored within, but Madonna cut right to the chase by showing off some of her most famous artifacts: her collection of Jean Paul Gaultier-designed cone bras. Yes, of course—she still has them.
While Madonna wore some Gaultier designs throughout the ’80s, the pair’s first official collaboration came when the pop star asked the designer to do the costumes for her 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour, the most famous of which were the cone bras, an exaggerated take on mid-century bullet bras. Although both parties have provided so much more to the culture, they’ll both be forever linked to those garments.
The first piece Madge showed off, done in a purple crushed velvet, seems to be a version of Gaultier’s first take on the cone bra, shown during his fall 1984 collection.
The other pairs seem to be the actual coned corset she wore during the tour.
“[H]ow could I not think about all the incredible clothes I got to wear and all the amazing designers I was lucky enough to work with!!” wrote the pop icon. She also shared a story about how her mother (also named Madonna), could never afford a coat. “She always spent what little money we had on our coats and I remember standing outside waiting for the school bus with my mother shivering in the cold in the middle of winter!! …Every time I put on an incredible coat I think of my mother. I hope she likes my taste in costumes, but most of all, I hope she’s warm!”
There are already rumors that the wardrobe for the upcoming The Celebration Tour includes some sort of revival of the cone bra—though this glimpse into the Material Girl archives has us thinking about a proper museum destination for some of her more iconic pieces. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has featured exhibits dedicated both to rock and roll and, more specifically, punk rock style in the past. Are we not ready for the pop music-themed Met Gala? Madonna probably has about a fourth of what they’d need to exhibit sitting in storage.