AKVW Catwalk
Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood Spring-Summer 27 Catwalk
Body & Soul
It's very special for us to be able to show in Palais de la Femme celebrating its 100th anniversary of service to the people of the city of Paris.
It's very special for us to be able to show in Palais de la Femme celebrating its 100th anniversary of service to the people of the city of Paris. The collection started in Barbès, 18th arrondissement, buying Bazin fabrics in vivid colours. Uplifting prints – flowers on flowers and leopard. A 17th century jacket called the Cheat Jacket – valuable fabric used only at the front. Swimwear, my favourite. Prudence’s hats made from Rose Cory’s original hat blocks. Stuart Mckenzie, old friend punk poet, performing the show music.
What will clothes become? It was a stifling summer, I lived in a nightshirt with nothing underneath. Pastels, gingham, nightshirts in silk and cotton, coat dresses, light tulle corsetry.
Vivienne comes to me as a robin, which I use as an icon throughout the collection. It is through Vivienne that I most understood how to honour life.
We called our Spring/Summer show ‘Body & Soul’ and designed a limited edition T-shirt in honour of the charity we met twenty years ago, which specialises in revolutionising suicide prevention with long-term intervention.
The collection features uplifting prints – flowers on flowers and leopard. A 17th century jacket called the Cheat Jacket – valuable fabric used only at the front. Prudence’s hats made from Rose Cory’s original hat blocks. Pastels, gingham, nightshirts in silk and cotton, coat dresses, light tulle corsetry.
French hair artist Charlie Le Mindu brought the designer's hair vision to life, in partnership with Schwarzkopf. The hair celebrated individuality as Charlie explains, ‘I'm always inspired by the models themselves and the individual story I want to tell through each look. It's about embracing the messiness of life and presenting a moment in time that isn't always perfect. Style wise, old Hollywood offers volume and curls, but we've presented it in an undone way, working with the movement of the models' hair.’
The show's beauty looks were created by Daniel Sällström, using Anastasia Beverly Hills. As Daniel notes, ‘We wanted the models to look beautifully sun-kissed, using the smooth blur bronzers to give a bronzed look and applying it all over the cheeks and eyes in a way that contours the face. The inspiration came from coming back from vacation, tanned and sexy with a touch of 80s glamour.’
Finishing touches were supplied by Mei Kawajiri at Nails by Mei. ‘Working with Vivienne Westwood is always such a dream because there’s so much freedom to play and experiment. This season, we pulled from the eclectic energy of the collection—mixing bright colours, unexpected textures, and lots of sparkle—and brought some of those ideas directly onto the nails. We even incorporated cosmetic glitters into the Chill Tips, which made them feel more tactile, expressive, and completely unique to the show. I love continuing to build this partnership with Chillhouse and showing how much creativity is possible with nails.’
Guests included Jaden Smith, Heidi Klum, Lou Lulola Samuel, Mon Laferte, Yi Mengling, Paris Jackson, Zhennan Zhou, Rose McGowan, Tansuan, Simona Tabasco, Shygirl, Lin Shiyi, Mayu Kitazawa, JEY, Suanbei, Pomme, Sekou, Gigi Goode, He Huixiang and Danielle Marcan.
'It’s very special for us to be able to show in Palais de la Femme celebrating its 100th anniversary of service to the people of the city of Paris'
Andreas Kronthaler
The Palais de la Femme, located on rue de Charonne in Paris’s 11th arrondissement, was founded in 1926 in response to a shortage of safe housing for single women. Managed by the Fondation de l’Armée du Salut, it was created to provide women with a protected, dignified environment where they could rebuild their lives and independence. Its very name, Palais de la Femme, represented a radical idea at the time: positioning women’s safety and autonomy at the centre of a major public institution.
