"I take something from the past that has a sort of vitality that has never been exploited - like the crinoline - and get very intense. In the end you do something original because you overlap your own ideas."
In 2002 Vivienne Westwood unleashed her Autumn/Winter 2003 “Anglophilia” Collection. She drew inspiration from the collections of fashion, paintings and furniture
at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Westwood’s crumpled silk taffeta gown was inspired by the 1758 Francois Boucher’s portrait of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV. The deconstructed gown is a fusion of historical and contemporary elements
While choosing a similar hue, the designer took the centred bodice ruffle and reinterpreted it and gave it a more modern twist with the asymmetrical line. Also, the volume of the Madame de Pompadour’s skirt has been reduced in Westwood’s modern construct and “is supported without the need for petticoats. To reproduce the crumpled, billowing drapery of the original, Westwood used deliberate creasing and sharply curved seams.”1. Silk Taffeta is Westwood’s favourite fabric and when she travels, she throws on her taffeta dresses straight out of the suitcase.
Claire Wilcox is curator of the exhibition Vivienne Westwood, first shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London 1 April – 13 July 2004.
The clothing reflected the inherent contradiction in Westwood's work between respect for tradition and culture and a love of parody and sexual liberty. In her interpretations of historical dress, Westwood has continued to emphasise the idea of constriction as a way to define the body and its movement and to direct posture. From her early bondage trousers, corsets and bodices to her highly structured tailoring and more recent, looser and deconstructed cutting, she draws attention to the figure through exaggeration and distortion of the body shape. A confident wearer of her clothes will find that with these techniques, Westwood has found a way to theatricalise arousal and eroticise power, while celebrating skill and the craft and history of materials. To place such contemporary pleasures in the context of history and cultural interchange with wit and panache continues to be Vivienne Westwood’s unique contribution to fashion and design.”2
Photos
- Vivienne Westwood logo (front page) - http://youngcreativepractices.blogspot.com/2010/11/vivienne-westwood-reading.html
- Vivienne Westwood Photograph (front page) http://samuraiknitter.blogspot.com/2009/10/vivienne-westwood.html
- Madame de Pompadour painting, Francois Boucher, 1758
- Evening Dress Anglophilia, Autumn/Winter 2003. Vivienne Westwood Image from Vivienne Westwood - The Exhibition, Museums Sheffield: Millennium Gallery 29 May – 21 September 2008 www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/viv Exhibition organised by V&A, London Image © Museums Sheffield
Quotes
- Front page, Vivienne Westwood, http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1231_vivienne_westwood/influences2.html
- 2. http://nga.gov.au/westwood/Wilessay.cfm - Claire Wilcox Essay
References
- The National Gallery of Australia http://nga.gov.au/westwood/Wilessay.cfm
- The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- http://www.viviennewestwood.co.uk/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood
- tp://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyne-politanoff/marieantoinette-meets-viv_b_910201.html
- http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/09/entertainment/et-westwood9
No comments:
Post a Comment