Designer A-Z

Vivienne Westwood

Autumn/Winter 2012

By Carrie Tyler

Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler looked to their heroes of past London for the autumn winter 2012 Gold Label collection, channelling 'the artists, intellectuals, scientists'.

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By their own admission, there wasn't much of a plan of where this might end beyond that. 'I began choosing fabrics and delegating technical tasks from random ideas until something began to form' said Westwood. Then a call came through from theatre director Philip Green asking if they'd design the costumes for a 17th century play and the two ideas merged.

The result: a dressing up box of melodramatic clothes for exaggerated characters. Westwood's child-like fantasy echoed by 'twinkle twinkle little star' ringing out as models with painted blush tottered along in staggeringly high wedge heels that looked like a primary school child's drawing.

To red, green and white strobe lights tracking the models, there was a mix of cuts and corsets, tailoring and drapery. Edges were often left raw and the Westwood cheek was present, peaking from bottom-baring leggings.

To finish, a parade of Queens in heavily jewelled embroidered bustiers and flowing trains. It was camp, it was pantomime and most of all, it was Westwood.