Vivienne Westwood : Pre-2000

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A rare Vivienne Westwood Malcolm Maclaren Seditionaries black muslin bondage shirt/dress, circa 1977, black ribbon label to lower right hem, printed in white to one side with "The Killer Rocks On!/ Anarchist Cook Book" and to the other "Vive le Rock and Disco.

kerrytaylorauctions.com

 

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Westwood Malcolm Mclaren Seditionaries t-shirt, with woven black ribbon label, with customised neckline and armholes, printed in green and pink.

kerrytaylorauctions.com

 

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Malcolm Mclaren `No Future'/Sex Pistols t-shirt, 1970s, un-labelled, printed in pink and blue with Queen's portrait.

kerrytaylorauctions.com

 

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Pirate collection jacket, circa 1981, labelled, woven in deep pink, blue and yellow cotton stripes with wide Macaroni-style lapels, three pewter buttons.

kerrytaylorauctions.com

 

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Tartan wool suit from 1993.

bbc.co.uk

 

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The kilt has featured regularly in Vivienne Westwood's collections since she launched her menswear label "Man" in 1996.

Although they are always cut in the traditional way, Westwood modernises their design by using innovative materials and patterns, styled with characteristic wit and irony.

Wool kilt with beads, synthetic jumper, cotton shirt, wool mantle Autumn/Winter 1997-1998.

vam.ac.uk

 

[Barbizon]

Great posts! Thank you. xo

 

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^ Glad you like them!

Sweater, 1976. Loosely knit mohair with color blocks of blue green, rust, and gray.

"Vivienne struck an odd combination of the dominatrix and pantomime principal boy in leather jodhpurs, or tiny leather miniskirt with appliquéd motorcycle badges, a thick American leather jacket, fluffy mohair sweater and little pointy booties. With her spiky, white-peroxided hair and pale skin providing a neutral background for her luscious purple lips, she was simply stunning" (Nils Stevenson, Vacant: A Diary of the Punk Years, 1976–79 [New York, 1999], p. 15).

Common mohair sweaters had been seen everywhere in London since the 1950s, but Westwood made her own version with a looser knit and bolder, asymmetrical color blocks that was decidedly different from the predictable stripes and colors of past decades.

metmuseum.org

 

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"On Liberty", Suit, fall/winter 1994–1995. Wool, cotton, leather.

More than any other contemporary designer, Vivienne Westwood has been scrupulous in her study of historical forms of dress. Her brilliance, however, has not been in the literal rendering of period artifacts but in her application of contemporary techniques to resolve their form-making and an almost abandoned revivification of their sexual content. Despite its cartoon-like rendering of the bustle, this suit precipitated a surprisingly erotic response when seen in motion on the runway.

metmuseum.org

 

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Shirt, 1976. Striped brown and white cotton with stenciled and painted slogans, and appliquéd patches.

"When the 'Dolls' folded Malcolm returned to Vivienne. Her latest design was an anarchy shirt—distressed to look old, with bleached-out stripes, and appliquéd with badges, flags and slogans: 'Only anarchists are Pretty!,' 'Dangerously close to Love,' 'We are not afraid of Ruins,' 'Chaos,' and a woven label from Chinatown of the portrait of Karl Marx, to which Malcolm added a swastika. This shirt looked as if it belonged to an urban guerilla and Malcolm saw in it the key to a new collection of clothes. All the current themes—rips, zips, p*rn, slogans, bondage and chains–were pressed into service and punk style was born" (Gene Krell, Vivienne Westwood [New York, 1997], p. 12).
This shirt epitomizes punk style and ideology. A similar shirt has been well documented in period photography as being worn by Johnny Rotten, lead singer of the Sex Pistols, and Sid Vicious, the group's bass player. It is thought that many of the expensive SEX garments worn by the Sex Pistols, which were given to them by McLaren and Westwood for promotion, were single garments passed around from band member to band member on a day-to-day basis.

metmuseum.org

 

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T-shirt, 1975–77. White cotton with red, blue, and black silkscreen print.

This version of what is known as the "Cambridge r*pist" T-shirt lacks the text and may have been a concession to the controversy that the original version elicited. Depicting the masked image against a distressed English flag is an overt representation of punk's anti-establishment message.

metmuseum.org

 

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"Bondage" suit, 1976. Black cotton with metal fittings. The "Bondage" suit epitomized the maverick creative collaboration between Westwood and McLaren. McLaren brought some standard-issue cotton army trousers back from a trip to the United States, which Vivienne then copied in a shiny black sateen McLaren had seen on the back of British rail clerks' waistcoats and sourced in Manchester. McLaren added the bondage straps between the knees, which were an extension of the sado-masochistic look they promoted at the time for its shock value. Pushing this traumatic aesthetic to its obvious conclusion creates the feel of a straightjacket and plays with all of the implications of the insane. Ultimately, they had created one of the most iconic garments of punk style, one that is still in production to this day.

metmuseum.org

 

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1996. Cream cotton shirt printed in mid blue with pointed turn-down collar and fastening cf with seven yellow plastic buttons; long sleeves with matching oval buttons; curved hem; inverted box pleat cb from yoke. Printed in blue with large scale "Toiles de Jouy" designs showing French domestic scenes.

manchestergalleries.org

 

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1994. Jacket : "Worthmore" black mohair/wool mix woven with a white flecked parallel stripe. Complex construction, with fronts dipping to points either side cf. Wide turned down collar; very wide separate revers; front opening, fastening diagonally to the left with 3 enamelled buttons (showing the orb and ring motif). Long sleeves without cuffs, but with deep faced slit on the inner seam. CB seam with deep inverted box pleat; side seams from under shoulder curving round side to point at fronts and then moving diagonally up to meet CF at the base of the revers. Each back panel cut as one piece with front skirt panels. Side pockets on the hips, tacked closed. Fronts faced with self fabric; upper bodice and sides lined with pink acetate.

manchestergalleries.org

 

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1998. Mustard yellow evening outfit, comprising hipster jacket in velvet and long trained skirt, bias cut in velvet and satin. SB jacket with large fuax horn orb button cf; patch pockets with v-shaped turn-down flaps; huge rounded revers; lined pale pink acetate; skirt with zigzag front panel in matching velvet, cut on the cross, and back in satin; woven labels "Vivienne Westwood, gold label, 14" Paper label in jacket with cost £525.

manchestergalleries.org

 

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1990 - 2000. 3-piece hotpants suit in fuschia pink silk satin and wool twill, comprising a long double breasted jacket in wool with stepped lapels and buttons faced in satin, a duchess satin "Ingres" waistcoat and matching satin hotpants, all labelled, and lined with "Mai West" hair print.

3-piece hotpants suit in fuschia pink silk satin and wool twill, comprising a long double breasted jacket in wool with stepped lapels and buttons faced in satin, a duchess satin "Ingres" waistcoat and matching satin hotpants, all labelled, and lined with "Mai West" hair print. All size 12

manchestergalleries.org

 

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A portion of "A Short Sharp Shock", a documentary on Punk and the Sex Pistols.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sxTuwBgYqug

 

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1993. 1993. Nylon lace, organdy, tulles.

wilsonart.com

 

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Oops. This is the back of #25. c. 1982 / 83. "Buffalo Girls" dress with train, machine-knitted wool; hat, wool felt, and ‘baggy’ shoes, suede.

Dress with train, machine-knitted wool; hat, wool felt, and ‘baggy’ shoes, suede

liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

 

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Vivienne Westwood is both iconoclast and global icon. In the 1970s, she electrified the world with the launch of Punk fashion and went on to become one of the most inventive and influential designers of our time. Fashion to her became "a baby I picked up and never put down."

This exhibition, which was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and which makes the de Young its only U.S. stop on an international tour, celebrates Westwood’s extraordinary, nearly 40-year-long career. Known best for her fearless nonconformity, she also has a profound respect for the past and looks to it for inspiration. With tradition as her springboard, she takes historic garments such as corsets and crinolines and reinvents them in new ways or uses thoroughly British fabrics like tartans and tweeds to create fashion that gently parodies Establishment styles. However outrageous or provocative the result, her approach has always been practical. She is driven by a curiosity about how things work, and her work reflects her systematic exploration of the structure of historical costume in museum collections.

Westwood's extraordinary range and inventiveness is showcased in the more than 150 objects that make up the exhibition, all drawn from her personal archive and the V&A's collection. The work spans the extremes of fashion, from London street style to the catwalks of Paris and London, and reveals Westwood’s own evolution from subversive shop owner to one of fashion’s most respected figures.

Spring/Summer 1991 Cut and Slash collection. Photograph by Marc Hispard, From Elle Brazil, July 1991, p. 104.

thinker.org