Pop singer Kylie Minogue has made a triumphant return home to Melbourne to open a new exhibition celebrating her live performances.

The show brings together costumes and memorabilia from her career, spanning nearly three decades.

The exhibition at the Arts Centre Melbourne features costumes from her iconic shows, including the Showgirl tour and Aphrodite Les Folies tour.

It was an emotional homecoming for the singer, who worked with the Arts Centre and curator Margot Anderson, to bring the exhibition to fruition.

“My life and stress and triumph and tears, that’s now on display there,” she said.

Minogue started donating her costumes to the Arts Centre 15 years ago and now there are over 800 items in the collection.

It is the second time the Arts Centre has staged an exhibition of the singer’s costumes.

Head of collections Janine Barrand said there were hundreds of items to choose from.

“It truly is a curatorial dream, most particularly to work with Kylie and her creative team because that’s what brings all of this to life,” she said.

Ms Anderson said many of the items had been designed by some of the world’s top fashion designers such as Dolce and Gabbana and Jean Paul Gautier.

Minogue said she had come a long way since cutting out patterns with mother and grandmother around the kitchen table in the late 1990s.

“I would never have reached that point in time without the Lycra and the Janome [sewing machine] and throwing a few beads on something back in 1989,” she said.

The exhibition is free and will be on at the Arts Centre Melbourne until January 22.

-ABC