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Exhibition Introduction
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This exhibition celebrates the extraordinary career of Vivienne Westwood. She played a vital role in the emergence of Punk Rock in the 1970s and has gone on to become one of the most original and influential designers of our time. Fashion, she said, was a baby I picked up and never put down.
Her designs combine a fearless unconformity with a sense of tradition. She is renowned for her gentle parody of Establishment styles, her use of very British fabrics such as Harris tweed and tartan, her re-use of historic garments such as the corset and crinoline. Yet, her approach has always been practical, driven by a curiosity about how things work, a process she describes as learning through action.
Westwood’s inventiveness is revealed in over 150 exhibits, largely taken from her personal archive and the V&A’s collections. It spans the extremes of fashion, from the streets of London to the Parisian catwalks, and her own evolution from subversive shop owner to fashion doyenne.
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Exhibition organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. |
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