A recent flush of fashion designer biopics and series have focused attention like never before on the look, not of fashion, but its creators. In Apple TV+ series The New Look, Christian Dior is flatteringly depicted by Ben Mendelsohn, while Juliette Binoche plays Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, a designer whose self-image became her key selling point.
Arguably, her only rival is Vivienne Westwood, another female designer who not only reshaped the way the world wears clothes but also wore just about all her designs herself.
It’s not facile to compare Westwood and Chanel, though on the surface they seem like diametric opposites. Chanel freed women from corsets, while Westwood trussed them back up in basques and crinolines — but both primarily focused on the feel of clothes, rather than their look; Chanel advocating physical freedom, Westwood psychological.
There is, therefore, something fascinating in examining the choices each of them made for their own wardrobes, as literal embodiments of their design philosophies.
Chanel’s personal wardrobe of easy tweed suits and heavy costume jewellery was auctioned at Christie’s in London in December 1978, well ahead of fashion consumers’ expensive enthusiasm for vintage, or even appreciation for high fashion from the high profile. The sale brought in impressive results, with museums acquiring pieces not only as examples of exceptional 20th-century design but with an unrivalled provenance.
Fittingly, this June Christie’s London is auctioning another fashion great’s personal wardrobe: this time, Westwood’s. The clothes — some 500 items — will span four decades and 42 collections. “Obviously it’s fashion history,” says Adrian Hume-Sayer, private collections director at Christie’s, who has been discussing this sale of Westwood’s clothes with her family for more than a year. “But one of the things that I found really fascinating, looking at some of these things on the racks, is that personal connection.”
Westwood’s clothes display not only her design prowess but her mantras for life. In line with her proselytising on sustainability, many of her clothes are darned and mended. The sale has been led by Westwood’s granddaughter, Cora Corré, and son Joseph Corré, alongside Westwood’s husband and design partner of more than 30 years, Andreas Kronthaler.
As with Chanel’s sale, the Westwood pieces are a cross-section of her greatest hits. The earliest piece is a suit from her 1983 collection Witches — a collection that, Westwood once told me she considered her first “solo” creations after the unofficial cessation of her business partnership with music impresario Malcolm McLaren. What had begun with their London shop Let It Rock in 1971 officially ended in 1984.
Other key looks include vast crushed taffeta ball gowns worn to awards ceremonies, curvaceous suits with breast details inspired by 16th-century costume, and a complex knitted floral dress that Westwood declared her favourite and wore on one of the last occasions we met.
“There will be certain things which are museum quality,” says Kronthaler, who today is creative head of the Vivienne Westwood labels. “But many of these things are really personal clothes. Not an artefact. They’re things she used, some of them on a daily basis.”
Institutions worldwide will doubtless be fighting over items from landmark collections such as Harris Tweed (autumn/winter 1987), in which Westwood reintroduced the corset, and On Liberty (autumn/winter 1994), in which she reinvented the bustle. Of the latter, one item he cites is a corduroy suit, which she wore for more than 20 years. There is also a “Cinderella” dress from spring/summer 2011 with painstaking darning along the waist seams.
Both will be familiar sights to Londoners who often saw Westwood cycling in outrageous fashions, with her signature Super Elevated platform shoes in the front basket.
Kronthaler broached the subject of selling Westwood’s clothes with her in the final weeks of her life. “I said to her, right there at the end, or towards the end . . . I had this idea, when she wouldn’t be anymore. Should I sell the clothes and give the money to a good cause?” He is, understandably, visibly emotional. “She said, ‘Yes, of course. It’s a good idea. All the money you can raise for something is helpful.’”
Unusually, the entire hammer proceeds from the sale will be going to charities via the Vivienne Foundation, the charitable body established in Westwood’s name. “We do do sales like this sometimes in varying forms that are entirely for charity, but it’s not universal by any means,” says Hume-Sayer.
Alongside the clothes will be sold a series of art prints, based on playing cards designed by Westwood and printed on paper she signed before she died. With an estimated value of £30,000-£50,000, the proceeds of this sale will be donated to environmental charity Greenpeace.
Every outfit in the fashion sale comes with an image of Westwood wearing the item, and the vast majority are outfits that appeared prominently in her catwalk shows. “There’s definitely increased interest in fashion without question, and it is definitely a category that we’re very interested in,” says Hume-Sayer. “We generally work with primary provenance collections: things that have come directly from the personal estate.”
To place it in context, the highest price reached at Christie’s sale of Chanel’s personal effects in 1978 was a suit, sold for $4,800; last November, a 1996 Chanel haute couture coat, designed by Karl Lagerfeld, hit €312,000, a world record for a vintage Chanel haute couture item.
For Kronthaler, the aim is simpler: less museum, more everyday life. He hopes Westwood’s clothes aren’t just bought by museums or collectors, but also by fans — to wear. “There’s the thought that somehow it does go somewhere, and people are hopefully having the same joy with them as she did, that we did,” he says.
Christie’s London will exhibit the Vivienne Westwood collection with free entry to the public from June 14 to June 24. The auction takes place on June 25, with an additional online auction running alongside from June 14
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