It seemed spookily quiet in Vivienne Westwood’s London showroom this morning—especially when compared to the raucous cacophony of her past shows.
Yet these still lines of clothes belie behind-the-scenes action. The no-show this week is a preamble to next January’s merging of this woman’s second line (formerly known as Red) and the men’s line under a label simply called Vivienne Westwood that will show at London Fashion Week Men’s. In Paris—in two weeks—the label formerly known as Gold will become Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, a longer but more accurate summation of the collection Westwood’s husband has masterminded for some time now.
Vivienne herself, however, will continue to boss this one—in between the imminent release of her diaries, titled Get A Life, the foundation of a club night for intellectuals and students, and new store openings in Paris and New York. Age does not wither her.
This collection bore the Dame’s hand via prints of painted squiggle on pantsuits, panels, jersey jackets, and micro-ponchos. A red check print was based on a pillowcase she pinched from her son Joe’s house, then overlaid with splatter and floral. There was a crini-liss mini meant to partner with her high-waisted, slightly off-kilter “Prince” jacket that ran through this collection. A cloaklet in layers of roughly tousled metallic fringing, harlequin patch boots, and ruffled confusions of fabric on skew-necked smocks transmitted the Italian-touched 16th-century theatricalism she said in her release she was aiming for.
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