“I want you to help me save the world, I can’t do it all on my own,” Dame Vivienne Westwood posthumously tells visitors from a screen as they arrive at Christie’s auction house, where 200 items of clothing, jewellery, and shoes, pulled from the hangers in her wardrobe, are on display ahead of their sale at a concurrent live and online auction in aid of Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, Greenpeace and The Vivienne Foundation until June 28. Westwood, who died at her home in Clapham in December 2022, was admired both as one of the most important fashion designers of all time and for her lifelong commitment to eco activism. Christie’s collection is classic Westwood: Anglomania, sharp tailoring, Harris Tweed, slogan t-shirts, 18th century inspired corsets – all synonymous with the fashion house.
But it’s the ghost of the designer that stops you in your tracks. “Climate revolution” badges remain pinned to evening gowns where she placed them. A sewing needle balances in the back of a dress she hadn’t yet finished mending.
“Normally this sort of condition would be a problem,” says Adrian Hume Sayer, Christie’s head of sales. “Whereas here, sewing is a tangible link to Vivienne.” Items at the top end of Christie’s Westwood auction – a full length nude illusion gown embellished with gold sequins from her autumn/winter World Wide Woman collection – are estimated to sell for around £10,000 at live auction on June 25.
But Sayer empha.
