{"id":29049,"date":"2025-07-01T05:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T05:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/29049\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T05:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T05:32:10","slug":"vivienne-westwood-rei-kawakubo-star-in-new-show-at-ngv-in-melbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/29049\/","title":{"rendered":"Vivienne Westwood, Rei Kawakubo Star in New Show at NGV in Melbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLONDON <\/strong>\u2014 The\u00a0National Gallery of Victoria<\/a> in Melbourne, Australia<\/a>\u2019s largest and oldest public art gallery,\u00a0plans to take a look at two groundbreaking female designers, Vivienne Westwood<\/a> and Rei Kawakubo<\/a>, whose careers evolved in parallel, and who both had a taste for provocation.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show, \u201cWestwood | Kawakubo,\u201d will run from Dec. 7 until April 19 and marks the first time the designers\u2019 fashion has been shown side by side, despite all they had in common.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey were born within a year of each other, on different sides of the world, and were both self-taught. Both had groundbreaking moments in 1981, with Westwood showing in London, and Kawakubo in Paris,\u201d said Katie Somerville, senior curator, fashion and textiles at the NGV, in an interview.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe similarities don\u2019t end there. Westwood\u2019s 1981 show, which she did with her then-husband and collaborator Malcolm McLaren<\/a>, was called Pirate, while Kawakubo\u2019s outing for her fledgling label Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/a> was titled Pirates.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough the women\u2019s aesthetics were different, their mindset was often similar. Both pushed the limits of convention, examined the complex relationship between clothes and the body, and brought historical dress into their work.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTheir work has never been about going quietly \u2014 or presenting what\u2019s expected,\u201d Somerville said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Comme<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tComme des Garc\u0327ons spring 2024<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYANNIS VLAMOS<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show will feature more than 140 designs, most of them from the museum\u2019s own collection, with the rest from private collections and institutions including London\u2019s\u00a0Victoria & Albert Museum<\/a>, Palais Galliera<\/a>\u00a0in Paris and the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tSomerville said that while they were organizing the show, the NGV received a \u201ctransformative\u201d donation of\u00a0more than 40 recent works from Comme des Gar\u00e7ons<\/a>. They will also feature in the show. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe exhibition has been organized by theme, and looks at the designers\u2019 embrace of provocation; menswear and tailoring; historical costume, and the female body. It also looks at both women\u2019s ability to make statements about politics and the environment through their designs. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tExhibition highlights include Westwood\u2019s punk ensembles from the late 1970s, popularized by London bands such as The Sex Pistols and Siousie Sioux; a romantic tartan gown from Westwood\u2019s Anglomania collection worn by Kate Moss on the runway in the early 1990s, and the original version of the corseted wedding dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in \u201cSex and The City: The Movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKawakubo\u2019s works include a sculptural petal ensemble worn by Rihanna on the red carpet and dramatic abstract works that challenge the relationship between the body and clothing. They include gingham sculptural designs from the Body Meets Dress \u2014 Dress Meets Body collection from spring 1997.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Models<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLooks from Vivienne Westwood<\/a>\u2018s 1981 Pirate collection.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the museum has a strong tradition of showcasing fashion, this is the first time it has put two designers side by side.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt the NGV, we\u2019ve carved out an innovative model of presenting shows where we pair artists,\u201d said Somerville, adding that recent \u2014 and successful \u2014 shows have looked at Andy Warhol alongside Ai Wei Wei, and Keith Haring in tandem with Jean-Michel Basquiat. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve never done one focusing on fashion \u2014 or women \u2014 and we thought it was a brilliant way\u201d to do both, she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve learned from doing those projects that if you pick two really significant, impactful [artists] and put them together, a whole other layer of things is revealed, other points of connection \u2014 and absolute divergence,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NGV plans to mark the opening of the exhibition \u2014 its annual summer blockbuster show \u2014 with a gala on Dec. 6 at\u00a0NGV\u00a0International.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 The\u00a0National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia\u2019s largest and oldest public art gallery,\u00a0plans to take a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,4740,24903,1033,171,24697,67,132,68,24696],"class_list":{"0":"post-29049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-comme-des-garu00e7ons","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-rei-kawakubo","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-vivienne-westwood"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114776345389788282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}