The Design Museum in London has opened Wes Anderson: The Archives, a large survey of the director’s personal materials. It runs from November 21, 2025 to July 26, 2026. More than 700 objects appear across the galleries, with over 300 pieces added specifically for the London stop.
Visitors walk straight into a three-meter model of the Grand Budapest Hotel. The candy-pink facade once sat on a film set; now it dominates the room and gives a quick sense of the scale Anderson works at. It isn’t a replica. It’s the real piece used during production.
Anderson began holding onto props after Bottle Rocket (1996), when most of that film’s material disappeared. Since Rushmore (1998) he has boxed up almost everything—costumes, miniatures, notebooks, and the small objects that would normally be tossed at wrap. The museum received access to this archive through a long collaboration with La Cinémathèque française.
The show follows a loose timeline from the 1990s through The Phoenician Scheme (2025). Hand-drawn storyboards sit next to Polaroids. There are spiral notebooks with clipped pages, pen marks, and scene ideas that never made it into the final cuts. Each film gets a separate room or alcove, which helps break the visual monotony.
Objects from The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
More than twenty items from Anderson’s latest film are displayed publicly for the first time. A Dunhill pipe, a jewelled dagger made by Harumi Klossowska de Rola, and several small props that appear only briefly on screen. The film’s main character, Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda, is written as a collector, and the curators point out the obvious parallel.
Highlights from the earlier films
The exhibition brings together the “Boy with Apple” painting, costumes worn by Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton, and the Asteroid City vending machines. The marine puppets from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) are still impressive up close; the paintwork looks almost wet.
Costumes fill several cases. Milena Canonero’s designs for The Grand Budapest Hotel appear with uniforms from Rushmore, the Zissou crew’s full outfits, and garments worn by actors including Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Jason Schwartzman, and Jeffrey Wright.
Stop-motion work gets its own section. Puppets from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) stand alongside early prototypes for Isle of Dogs (2018). Mr. Fox’s tiny corduroy suit is displayed with the stitching visible under the lights.
Short films included
Visitors can watch Bottle Rocket (1993), Hotel Chevalier (2007), Castello Cavalcanti (2013), and The Swan (2023). The original Bottle Rocket short plays at its full 14 minutes. It’s rarely accessible and may be the most personal item in the entire show.
Collaborative work on display
Another part of the exhibition turns toward the people who help shape Anderson’s films: illustrators Javi Aznarez and Eric Chase Anderson, composers Alexandre Desplat and Randall Poster, production designers Mark Friedberg and Adam Stockhausen, costume designer Milena Canonero, model maker Simon Weisse, puppet fabricator Andy Gent, and others. Their sketches and unused materials show how much of the visual language is built in conversation.
Design Museum director Tim Marlow notes that Anderson’s detailed approach comes from a strong understanding of design, which made the museum a natural host for the project.
Expanded material for the London edition
The Paris version established the core of the exhibition, but the London show adds hundreds of extra objects. Fabrics, paint swatches, miniature engineering samples, and reference boards give a clearer sense of how each film’s world was constructed.
The catalogue produced for the exhibition includes new essays and interviews with Anderson and several long-time collaborators, including Owen Wilson, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Alexandre Desplat, Seu Jorge, and Randall Poster.
