The largest exhibition ever devoted to Vivienne Westwood, one of the world's most influential fashion designers, has drawn a lot of viewers since it opened in Shanghai early this month.
The exhibition is on a global tour after it was successfully held in London's Victoria & Albert Museum from April 1 to July 11 last year in a retrospection of the British designer's 34 years in the profession. Shanghai is the third stop of the exhibition after London and Canberra and afterwards it will travel to Taipei and Tokyo.
The exhibition features around 150 designs mainly from V&A's collection and Westwood's personal archive to examine her career from the 1970s to the present day, including punk clothes worn by members of the famous music band "The Sex Pistols" in the 1970s, and the revolutionary "Mini Crini" and "Pirate" collections of the 1980s.
Highlights also include the infamous shoes in which Naomi Campbell toppled over on the catwalk in 1993, a sumptuous ballgown worn by Linda Evangelista, major pieces worn by Sarah Jessica Parker as style icon Carrie in the television series "Sex and the City," garments worn by the British artist Tracy Emin and a dress worn by Cameron Diaz at the 59th annual Golden Globe awards in January 2002.
Westwood played a vital role in the emergence of Punk Rock in the 1970s and has gone on to become one of the most original and influential designers of the present time.
Her designs combine a fearless uniformity with a sense of tradition. "The only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word 'conformity.' Nothing is interesting to me unless it's got that element," she once said.
She is renowned for her gentle parody of establishment styles, her use of very British fabrics such as Harris tweed and tartan, and her re-use of historic garments such as the corset and crinoline.
For the major contribution she has made to international fashion for over three decades, she was honored in 1992 with the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Though Westwood's designs have never been as commercially successful as those of Dunhill and Burberry, which are also from Britain, they are unique for being passionately intertwined with London's art scene, said Jim Hollington, the Consul Cultural of the British Consulate in Shanghai.
"Vivienne Westwood's designs are more like works of art than what can be worn in daily life, yet they are so inspiring that I would not mind spending a fortune on one piece which I would probably just wear once in my life," said Chen Min, head of marketing of Dunhill China.
"Westwood's designs reflect the British tradition of being innovative," said Zhao Bingbing, arts manager of the British Council Shanghai, and co-ordinator of the exhibition.
The exhibition is divided in two parts: The first part consists of a series of tableaux reflecting the interiors of Westwood's ground-breaking shops from "Let it Rock" (1971), "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die" (1972), "Sex" (1974), "Seditionaries" (1976) to "World's End" (1981 onwards).
The second part is divided into themes, for example, tailing, ball-gowns, corseting and shoes.
(China Daily July 28, 2005)
