aficionados were spoilt for choice at this week, where more than 200 of the late designer’s personal items were sold off in aid of The Vivienne Foundation and Médecins Sans Frontières. But there was one stand-out piece that collectors had their eye on: a taupe silk-taffeta gown from her brand’s fall/winter 1998 collection, entitled . The star piece from the Vivienne Westwood auction “This magnificent dress was the most technically complex item from personal wardrobe,” , director of private & iconic collections and head of sale at , tells .
“It encapsulated her skill of combining modern and historical references. In it she cleverly brought together a historic form with ribboning referencing her early bondage designs, creating a look with immense presence.” Indeed, the designer’s fall/winter 1998 , shown during , was all about playing with proportion.
Case in point: the gown’s voluminous bubble peplum skirt – which as notes in his 2021 book, , harks back to the – a style that was popular in European royal circles in the 1770s. A creative masterpiece “One could speak of the anachronism of wearing a style of gown that was fashionable in 1770 – 254 years later and we’re still fawning over this aesthetic,” , founder of and a collector, reflects. “This was one of the tenets of taking from the past, reinterpreting for the present and making it last well into the future.
What is fascinating about the construction is that while it is , it’s not const.
