Vivienne Westwood A/W13 Collection At PFW: The Dark Ages With Glamour
“When you go back in time you also enter the future” – quotes Dame Vivienne Westwood.
This philosophy was the ‘fil rouge’ of her Gold Label AW13 show at Paris Fashion Week. A collection influenced by the illustrations of manuscripts dating back to Medieval Europe; think the Dark Ages with a touch of edgy glamour.
Westwood places printed fabrics along aside luxurious white silk dresses for the modern lolitas with a series of pinstriped suits, iconically dramatized with oversized squared shoulders. The collection is then shaken up by floral matrioskas and sequined dresses perfectly draped in that impeccable Westwood style. Models with plague-like face paint, styled with long hair trapped in white braids sashayed down the catwalk like geishas.
To highlight global issues we see a catwalk of neo-warriors wearing ‘Climate Revolution’ printed capes – a political graphic imposed by the designer in order to speak out in support of Greenpeace and the Save the Arctic mission.
Layer over layer, Vivienne dresses her woman with an imaginative clash of cultures, places and lifestyles. The hidden bride closing the show looks like the white canvas that connects all the looks together with an intriguing storyline.
Vivienne Westwood never ceases to amaze the viewers with the iconic elements that characterize her over the top love of fashion – as always on the edge between the condemnation of global issues and the strive to let women be free to express themselves through her clothes.
The collection is overall a mix of wearable and unique structured pieces thrown together in a colorful chaos that at times looks random and underthought, while revealing the complex personality of the Dame Westwood we appreciate. Irriverent meets quirky, meets sexy, under the Union Jack flag.
