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The Art of Fashion
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| Westwood spent many hours in the Wallace Collection in London studying 18th-century French art. She found inspiration in the costume, and also in the harmonies of colour, design and movement that she saw in the paintings. In shows, she began to use statuesque models dressed in sumptuous costumes and poised on 10-inch platform shoes, as if on a pedestal. The idea was that they had just stepped out of a portrait. |
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Evening dress
Anglophilia, A/W 2003
This dress is Westwood’s version of that worn by Madame de Pompadour in a portrait by Boucher. The skirt is supported without the need for petticoats. To reproduce the crumpled, billowing drapery of the original, Westwood used deliberate creasing and sharply curved seams.
Dress: silk
Shoes: leather
Lent by Vivienne Westwood
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Boulle print dress
Portrait, A/W 1990
Taking advantage of the latest technology, Westwood took a design from Boulle furniture and printed it in gold ink on to a stretch black velvet. She intentionally let it crackle, like the on an old master painting. She printed the shawl with a detail from Daphnis and Chloe by François Boucher, even emulating the gilded frame.
Dress: synthetic velvet
Shawl: printed wool
Shoes: leather
Jewellery: synthetic pearls
Worn by Vivienne Westwood
Lent by Vivienne Westwood
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