The content on this page and other DCITA document archive pages is provided to assist research and may contain references to activities or policies that have no current application. See the full archive disclaimer.
Vivienne unleashed!
By Christopher Willcox
Written in large letters along a wall in the National Gallery is the simple statement: 'you have a much better life if you wear impressive clothes'.
This may seem contrary to the modern mantra of 'it's what's inside that counts', but Westwood explains that her work does more than just enhance the superficial. 'A compliment is not "you are wearing a Vivienne Westwood" but "what an interesting person": fashion brings out personality,' she said.
And this philosophy runs through the entire Vivienne Westwood Retrospective now showing at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Fashion is a tool of expression and it can change the way people think. Taking functional clothes and relics from other times and regions, Westwood has been able to reformulate old ideas and give voice to new ones.
Rebellion is often the midwife at the birth of a new fashion and this is evident in Westwood's 'Seditionaries' collection. She brought together a range of subversive elements-ripped garments of 50s pin-ups, leather, chains and motorcycle buckles-and created the British Punk look. In 1975, a young man found out what the establishment thought of this new fashion. He was arrested for wearing a Westwood shirt, which is in this exhibition, showing two semi-nude cowboys.
It was seen as offensive and Westwood was charged with exposing to the public an indecent exhibition.
As often happens in fashion, these potent elements were eventually diluted by popularity, but they have had a lasting impact. Her style was copied by the punk sub-culture and it gave them identity as they fought against the staid direction of their parents. It was a 'heroic attempt to control the older generation,' she said. 'The real link that connects all my clothes is this idea of the heroic'.
This collection also clearly celebrates the female form. The corset, another retrieved relic, is one of Westwood's most recognised trademarks. Just as a revolutionary crowd may parade the carcass of a deposed dictator through the streets, Westwood plucks the carcass of oppressive fashion from history, makes it into a symbol of female empowerment, and parades it to the world. The bra worn on the outside is another example of how Westwood can make a rebellious statement with a simple manipulation of the everyday.
Westwood has shown an affinity with traditional clothing and has drawn on this throughout her career. Her Harris Tweed collection celebrates this affinity and it is also seen in the recurrence of tartans and kilts throughout her work.
The minikilt, and the lace miniskirt with a leather and fur sporran are examples of Westwood's interest in traditional British clothing, but she also drew on 18th century French art to create sumptuous costumes with ten-inch heels for her Portrait collection.
Westwood said 'you need to transport your ideas to a world that doesn't exist and then populate it with fantastic looking people'. Through a long and varied career she has created these fantastic looking people.
This collection presents sleek garments made of synthetic flouro fabric fastened with rubber phallus buttons; traditional British themes with classical drapery; paired tweed overprinted with pornographic Greek images; oversized jackets worn with tube skirts and pointed hats; huge tattered skirts and sheepskin jackets in muddy colours. Everywhere you look there is something from a world that does not exist and yet there is a vague familiarity about the collection.
Her recent work marks a return to free-form cutting using triangular gussets and curved seams to explore the natural dynamic of the fibre. Her latest collection 'Le Flou Taille' or 'unstructured tailoring' gives the illusion of free flowing garments that are, in fact, very carefully constructed and invite consideration of the paradox that arises when constriction leads somehow to freedom.
Andreas Kroththaler, Vivienne's husband and co-designer, praised the exhibition highly at its opening. 'How incredible the collection looks, maybe better than in London,' he said.
The Vivienne Westwood Retrospective is on display at the National Gallery of Australia until 30 January 2005. For more information visit www.nga.gov.au or phone 02 6240 6502.
Inset at top: Sarah Stockbridge on cover of I-D 1987
Photograph by Nick Knight, © Nick Knight
Exhibition organised by the V&A, London
Below: Catwalk shot, Café Society Spring / Summer 1994
Photograph by Victoria & Albert Museum
Exhibition organised by V&A, London
Inset at top: Naomi falling
Photograph by Niall McInerney, © Niall McInerney
Exhibition organised by the V&A, London
Right: Destroy T-shirt
Photograph: unknown
Exhibition organised by the V&A, London