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Heritage
Westwood Heritage: A History with Wallace Collection
27/03/2024 — Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne revered the Wallace Collection for everything it embodies. With its opulent rooms – housing renowned works of art from the eighteenth century – she described the museum as ‘a jewel box’ of treasures. ‘The Wallace Collection is the greatest art school in the country’. To her, the museum epitomised the century; ‘A high point of culture’. Her own designs would go on to reference the era, lending an air of opulence to contemporary fashion.
Each Vivienne Westwood collection reveals a narrative – or as journalist Alexander Fury offers, ‘A story that inspires; suggesting characters that then determine outfits.’ The Portrait collection of Autumn-Winter 1990/91 was dedicated to the richness of eighteenth-century oil painting – drawing directly from the decorative universe of the Wallace Collection. ‘Portrait was a turning point,’ reflects Fury. ‘Sensuous and escapist, it set Vivienne Westwood on a new course for almost a decade’. For the first time, Vivienne reproduced a painting on a piece of clothing, choosing ‘Daphnis and Chloe’ by François Boucher, 1743-5. She printed the painting across the front of her Stature of Liberty corset; a style that would become synonymous with the house. ‘I wanted the look of a model who'd just stepped out of a portrait,’ she explained. ‘I wanted canvas in my collection - and even more, I wanted an actual photographic painting. That is when I decided to choose the Boucher, being so typical and so pretty.’
The painting was also reproduced and printed onto accessories, namely on decorative shawls framed in gold – presented like masterpieces, made fluid. ‘I wanted to use the things that most epitomised paintings,’ Vivienne noted. Accordingly, fabrics of lace, velvet, knits, tweed, city-stripe cotton, tartan, linen and satin, were complemented by costume jewellery. ‘Each fabric had to be an epitome,’ she reflected. ‘Velvet printed with designs from furniture in the Wallace Collection – and I introduced the giant dropdown pearl earring. It was incredibly hard to source, but within three months, they were in every department store.’ Vivienne felt the idea of a single pearl earring, or even three strands of pearls, was so timeless and typical of the era, that they could look good in any period.
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Nods to Rococo art continued to resurface throughout Vivienne’s designs, many of which were inspired by pieces from the Wallace collection: the intricacy of Fragonard’s 'The Swing’ (1767) printed across accessories; plate armour-inspired jackets, for the Time Machine collection of 1988; the turquoise tones of Sèvres porcelain, adorning gowns and outerwear; a gold motif, deriving from a brass interlay pattern on the back of a mirror - by furniture designer André-Charles Boulle - laid over velvet and tulle; or 18th century touches throughout our recent Spring-Summer 2024 collection, where a painterly mood is seen in sky blue jacquards, emulating the kiss of Boucher’s Hercules and Omphale, 1703-70. By allowing the cultural and aesthetic significance of these works to take on new forms, Vivienne's creations approached the status of masterpieces themselves. ‘I believe that art is a mirror on life,’ she expressed. ‘It gives us the depth of understanding of how other people lived. I have been inspired by it my whole career. I believe that pursuing art gives you this wonderful anchor; you can engage in politics, you can get a view of the world, and you always feel like you're making progress.