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Punks to Pirates - Vivienne Westwood ExhibitionFrom the spikes and safety pins on the Sex Pistols' costumes, to an outlandish tartan wedding gown modelled by Kate Moss, designer British Vivienne Westwood has shaped fashion for three decades.
An enigmatic figure, the 63-year-old started designing in 1970. She left behind her first husband and primary school teaching career to open a small shop in London with her new partner, Malcolm McLaren.
The shop changed names and styles five times over 10 years - with fashion phases embracing the rock'n'roll '50s, black urban culture, punk, and then pirates' clothing. But Westwood was here to stay, going on to become a global fashion icon.
The first major retrospective of her work, Vivienne Westwood, 34 years in fashion, opens today at the National Gallery of Australia, after a successful season at London's Victoria & Albert Museum.
Her husband and co-designer, Andreas Kronthaler, was in Canberra yesterday to launch the exhibition. Westwood had remained in Britain to be with a terminally ill friend.
The exhibition features more than 150 designs, some from her private collection.
Included are the Sex Pistols' costumes, the 25-centimetre blue mock-croc platform shoes from which supermodel Naomi Campbell infamously toppled on a Paris catwalk in 1993, and bright, grand ball gowns.
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Punks to Pirates - Vivienne Westwood Exhibition (5593)
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