Shirt
Vivienne Westwood · ca. 1980
Vivienne Westwood
- Punk
- Historical tailoring
- Corsetry
Vivienne Westwood helped shape British punk with Malcolm McLaren before developing an increasingly independent design language. The Pirate collection of 1981 opened a sustained exploration of historical dress.
Official house website
Five looks to know
Landmark design
Seditionaries bondage ensemble
ca. 1977
Straps, fastenings and rubber bring the visual language of punk into an ensemble jointly designed with Malcolm McLaren.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
Pirate shirt
Pirate · 1981
Historical volume became a new vocabulary for street fashion in Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s first catwalk collection.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
Watteau evening dress
Les Femmes ne Connaissent pas toute leur Coquetterie · Spring/Summer 1996
An eighteenth-century sack-back gown becomes an asymmetrical modern evening dress, showing Westwood’s use of art history as a source for new silhouettes.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Landmark design
On Liberty bustle suit
fall/winter 1994–95
An exaggerated bustle brings historic dress construction into contemporary tailoring; the Met emphasizes its transformation when worn in motion.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Landmark design
Boucher Portrait corset
Portrait, 1990
The printed detail of Boucher’s Daphnis and Chloë makes a historical corset both an outer garment and a wearable painting.
© Vivienne Westwood Ltd, via The Wallace CollectionCollections & archive pieces
3 collections represented · 5 piecesca. 1980
1 piece · Season not recorded
Pirate · 1981
1 piece
Pirate
Vivienne Westwood · 1981
ca. 1977
1 piece · Season not recorded
Ensemble
Vivienne Westwood · ca. 1977
Les Femmes ne Connaissent pas toute leur Coquetterie · Spring/Summer 1996
1 piece
Watteau evening dress
Vivienne Westwood · spring/summer 1996
Pirate, autumn/winter 1981–1982
1 piece
About Vivienne Westwood
Corsets, tailoring and exaggerated proportions became tools for reinvention, combining respect for skilled construction with a desire to challenge convention and make people look again.
READ FURTHER
V&A: Vivienne Westwood, punk and beyond