Ensemble, womens, corset and skirt, wool/cotton/metal, Vivienne Westwood, England, 1990.

Corset: womens corset made of purple cotton velvet with a low cut wide, square neckline and thick shoulder straps. The front and back panels are heavily boned and joined at sides with panels of black wool jersey. The boned panels are lined with black cotton. The hem is trimmed with black wool jersey as is the top edge of the back. Centre back opening fastens with a black nylon zipper.

Skirt: loose fitting womens skirt gathered onto a drawstring waist, made of black wool jersey. The back has a slight bustle effect given by four 'balls' of stuffed black polyester jersey pinned with small gold metal safety pins to black tape loops along the waistband.

Vivienne Westwood (born 1941 England) studied at Harrow art school before training as a teacher. Taught before working as a fashion designer from about 1971 onwards. With partner Malcolm McLaren was proprietor of London boutique variously named Let it Rock, 1971, Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die,1971, Sex, 1974, Seditionaries, 1977, and World's End, from 1980; second shop Nostalgia of Mud, opened, 1982; Mayfair shop opened, 1992. First showed under her own name, 1982, first full menswear collection launched, 1990. Professor of fashion, Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1989-91. Awared British Designer of the Year 1990 and 1991. Awarded OBE in 1992.

Westwood is a designer widely recognised as one of the most innovative in the late 20th century. She is the fashion designer most closely associated with the punks, a youth subculture that developed in England in the late 1970s. She captured the essence of confrontational anti-fashion long before other designers. With her boutiques jointly owned by Malcolm McLaren the initial emphasis was on a 1950s revival look derived from the delinquent styles of the 1950s. In 1976 she created a collection influenced by sadomasochistic sex and featured clothes that were studded, buckled, strapped, chained and zippered. In subsequent collections she continued the theme of sex in fashion. She launched the fashion for underwear as outerwear, showing bras worn over dresses. She exploited the erotic potential of shoe fashions. In 1981 she launched her Pirates collection which heralded the beginning of the New Romantic Movement. The collection utilized historical revivalism rather than fetishism. The collections that followed plundered 'the world of ideas' and continued Westwood's postmodern collage of disparate objects and images. In 1985 she launched her 'mini crini' a short hooped skirt inspired by the Victorian crinoline and styled with a tailored jacket and platform shoes. She also revived the corset. In the 1990s she has continued to transgress boundaries.

reference Contemporary Fashion editor Richard Martin, St James Press, 1995

see also research file with Department of Decorative Arts and Design, Powerhouse Museum

Books:

Polhemus, Ted, Fashion and Anti Fashion, London, 1978
Mc Dermott, Catherine, Street Style: British Design in the 1980s, London, 1987
Howell, Georgina, Sultans of Style: 30 Years of Fashion and Passion 1960-1990, London, 1990
Steele, Valerie, Women of Fashion: Twentieth Century Designers, New York 1991



Vivienne Westwood is located in London but by the late 80s some clothing was being manufactured in Italy.

This ensemble was made in 1990.

There is some contradiction with dates on file notes from donor. Curator rang donor to confirm date of purchase was 1990.

Purchased by donor when she was working as a fashion PR in London. Outfit was purchased in 1990 from Vivienne Westwood's Davis Street store- the corset for 120 pounds and the skirt for 160 pounds. The garments were worn separately as well as together. The safety pins which secure the paddings are original. The donor says the padding could be worn at the back or at the hips. Together, the garments were worn with Westwood jewellery and black tights and shoes.

Gift of Virginia Dowzer, 1999

Corset: red and yellow fabric label inside proper right back neck 'Vivienne/Westwood', four small white fabric labels in same place '12', 'MADE IN ENGLAND', 100% COTTON/DRY CLEAN ONLY', '100% WOOL/DRY CLEAN ONLY'.

Skirt: white and red fabric label inside proper left waist 'Vivienne/Westwood/MADE IN ENGLAND', two small white fabric labes in same place 'ONE SIZE', 100% WOOL/DRY CLEAN ONLY'.

99/54/1

1990