Vivienne Westwood, o salto da tigresa

At the MUDE, visitors can view a collection of clothes created by Vivienne Westwood. Each piece highlights her interest in history and her originality in reinterpreting and updating garments linked, for example, to the Renaissance or the 17th century.

The title of the exhibition is Vivienne Westwood o salto da tigresa, which refers to a philosophical concept developed by Walter Benjamin. It is a metaphor for revolutionary action. It is a sudden and unexpected break with the course of history. It invites us to think about time in a new way and to move away from a linear and straightforward view of it. The tiger's leap is the moment when past and present converge. Benjamin uses the tiger's leap to understand struggles and revolts. It corresponds to the reappropriation of the past and its activation in the present by giving it a new image. This concept perfectly illustrates Vivienne Westwood's creations, as she herself has explained in several interviews: “All my ideas come from studying the ideas of the past. There is a link between art and fashion. I couldn't create anything without being inspired by art.”

Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022) was a British fashion designer who played a major role in popularizing the punk and new wave movements. She was also deeply committed to freedom of expression, civil rights, and environmentalism. She started out as a schoolteacher and began designing clothes after meeting Malcolm McLaren, the future manager of the Sex Pistols. Together, they opened a boutique that changed names several times. Let It Rock in 1971, their first designs were influenced by counterculture movements. In 1972, the shop became Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, in 1974 it became Sex, in 1976 it became Seditionaries, and in the 1980s it changed its name again to Wolrds End. They spread the punk aesthetic in their designs by making torn clothes with safety pins or by subverting symbols of royalty, such as the famous T-shirt with the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. Vivienne Westwood also questions gender issues in her designs by developing androgynous lines. Her designs also feature many historical influences, borrowing from the Renaissance, British tradition, and 17th- and 18th-century paintings.

The exhibition begins with a dress from the Pirate collection for fall/winter 1981-1982, the first official collaboration with Malcolm McLaren. This collection is highly imaginative, with a theatrical feel to the silhouettes. They are characterized by shapes borrowed from the world of piracy and 17th-century nobility. Westwood reinterprets historical shapes, making them looser and more comfortable, with asymmetrical and androgynous cuts. Several iconic pieces can be found in this collection, such as the soft leather pirate boots with multiple buckle straps and the shirt with wavy prints. The motifs come from nautical vocabulary and are inspired by galleons and Native American designs. This collection is also inspired by French Romanticism, referencing Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa. The dominant tones of the dress on display are the same as those in the painting (brown), but through her choice of materials, which reflect the light and add shine, and the addition of touches of color, Westwood brings the dress to life, moving away from the morbid nature of the painting.

Corsets, iconic pieces from Vivienne Westwood's collections, are excellent examples of her ability to draw on elements from history and give them a new purpose. The corset is a rather controversial garment in the history of fashion. It has been seen as a symbol of wealth and nobility, an erotic symbol, and even a patriarchal instrument. Corsets were first used as undergarments, worn over a blouse or tank top rather than directly against the skin to keep them cleaner and more comfortable. In the 20th century, they were perceived as restrictive garments. It was used to alter the female silhouette by slimming the waist and lifting the chest to conform to aesthetic standards. It is complex and traditionally made to measure to fit the wearer's shape as closely as possible. Vivienne Westwood changed its primary use, incorporating it into her collections and giving it the status of outerwear. By diverting it from its usual function, she transformed it into a symbol of female liberation and emancipation. She used modern materials such as Lycra to make it more comfortable and flexible, abandoning the traditional, overly rigid whalebone stays. She incorporated a zipper to replace the lacing and hooks that traditionally fastened it, and added elastic at the sides. Westwood reappropriated the shape of the flat corset of the 18th century, becoming the first designer to reinterpret its structure. The first corset to appear in her collections was the Portrait corset in the fall/winter 1987-1988 collection. For this piece, Vivienne decided to print the painting Daphnis and Chloe on the front.

Vivienne Westwood also draws inspiration from British tradition, revisiting classic suit styles and incorporating tartan patterns into her collections. She offers clothing with a strong classic foundation, but styles them in unconventional ways by exaggerating proportions, making seams visible, or even tearing them. 

Tartan is a Scottish wool fabric traditionally used to make kilts. It is created by weaving alternating bands of colored threads in the warp and weft. Associated with rebellion, the tartan pattern was banned between 1746 and 1786 following the Jacobite uprisings. Vivienne Westwood incorporated it for the first time in her Fall/Winter 1988-1989 Time Machine collection, and it became a recurring choice in her designs. She even developed and registered her own tartans, such as the MacAndreas tartan created for her 1993 Anglomania collection. In this collection, Westwood combined elegant, classically cut suits with mini-kilts. She has already mixed more than 12 different tartans in some of these creations. She took an element of British tradition and modernized it, using it on extravagantly cut clothing and accessories, but also infusing it with pop colors.

  

Throughout her career, Vivienne Westwood has constantly drawn inspiration from history, successfully integrating her inspirations into the contemporary era. In an interview, she stated, “Exploring the past is entering the future.” This creative thinking has enabled her to make her mark on fashion history and become a leading figure in her field.