Vivienne Westwood UK

HISTORICAL CORSET

Vivienne Westwood Gold Label Autumn-Winter 2012/13 ‘London’ collection.

This one-shoulder corset demonstrates the continued subversion of historical cuts to inspire and sculpt the shape of the Gold Label collection. In the show notes,Vivienne commented,‘By engaging with human genius, I have tried to capture the past in my fashion. But we can never repeat, we are swept along by the changing times and our own experience. When we try to imitate, we find ourselves doing something new. I see fashion as a proposal, a way for people to look more wonderful’. The asymmetry in this piece is an element that is recurrent throughout Vivienne Westwood designs. In most cases, this is a reference to the movement of drapery against the body within paintings, the idea of ‘spontaneous gestures, then captured and frozen in cloth’ —Alexander Fury