Vivienne Westwood Museum Exhibition

The Vivienne Westwood Exhibition at the Fashion Institute of technology, which is located on W27^th street and 7^th avenue, also free of charge; generated my curiosity for the British designer of whom I have heard of before (of course) but never paid enough attention to. I always had associated her with one of those top designers with clothing that rampantly appeared in various high-fashion magazines that only people with a discretionary income in the tens of thousands can afford. These tidbits are still true but there is more. The exhibition focuses on the less than glamorous beginnings of Westwood and her life as a fashion designer.
To be frank, the exhibition is small, (photo’s of her early collections were encased in frames along a corridor at the start of the tour, with a few “physical” objects like the rocking boots that only led to an open space with about five mannequins, a few flat screens replaying runway clips and one very popular music video of the era). A well-spoken, sweet-sounding woman named Miriam Murphy was the tour guide who seemed to be able to integrate Westwood’s early punk fashions into her own life as she actually lived it. As a teenager during the eighties, Murphy remembered using safety pins to adorn her jackets, shirts and anywhere imaginable. Probably to the ashy blonde, bubbly woman already in her forties, the exhibition was not really history but merely another page in her photo album. Either way, she spoke with enthusiasm, which made me more attentive and able to absorb more of what she had to say.

Westwood was already in her thirties when she started out with her first Pirates collection in 1980. Murphy pointed out the “humble” beginnings of Westwood was made evident in a photo of the designer seated in a rundown-looking factory among scattered clothing working on a garment. The Pirates collection was collaborated with Westwood’s boyfriend at the time, Malcolm Mclaren. The collection emphasized on eighteenth-century men’s undergarments with manipulations. What made this collection so unique is that it was made to be unisex. Male and female models were seen wearing the same outfits in separate photos appearing in early Vogue issues. The minimal success of this collection led to many more collections that were inspired by fashions of historical and traditional times.

Eventually, her later collections were Savage and Buffalo (I particularly love the buffalo collection which largely comprised of oversized clothing, even for women but with cowboy hats, fringes and buckles which all exude the tough, sand-kicking, gun-slinging life of the Wild, Wild West) respectively. Then there’s the Mini Crini collection that had women wearing poofy skirts (unheard of at that time) on city streets. Westwood seemed to design clothing drawn from past history such as the corsets, ensembles of pirates, cowboys, 18^th century structure and style, and strangely enough appearing on the runway in one of the video clips was a white top with a blue, capped collar and big red bows that looked like the school uniform of girls. (Hint, Serena from Sailor Moon or even possibly Walt Disney’s Show White.)

Westwood’s garments were a little over the top and even outrageous. The variance in colors, patterns, structures and the big influence from music such as I want Candy from the band BowWow were clearly demonstrated on her apparel shown in print ads, on the mannequins of the exhibit and even on models in the videos of her fashion shows (In which one particular scene, I was reminded of her peer, Betsey Johnson after she did a cartwheel on the runway). After the tour, I sat down for a long time on a wooden bench in a home theatre-like environment to watch the full video of her 1980s fashion shows. Then, I decided that the dedication and exhibition of Westwood’s historical fashions was actually a really, really good idea. 
xo 
Edo