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Vivienne Westwood Designs Costumes for amfAR Gala Salzburg
25/08/2025 — Vivienne Westwood
Monday 25th August.
Yesterday evening, the amfAR Gala Salzburg, curated by LIFE+, was hosted for the first time during the Salzburg festival. Attended by guests including Jeremy Irons and Sir Bob Geldof, with performances from Sunnyi Melles, Ute Lemper and Rufus Wainwright: uniting the creative arts in support of the cause.
Presented in the baroque Residenz Salzburg, Vivienne Westwood created special costumes for the gala performance, focusing on the evening's theme of the ‘Jedermann’ (Everyman) play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Re-working the past into the future, the costumes, once worn by opera singers and performers, were selected from the Salzburg Festival’s costume archive by creative director Andreas Kronthaler. Taken apart, combined, re-sewn, and mixed-up with pieces from current collections to tell a new story in the signature style of the house.
The gala performance was a narrative-driven celebration, inspired by the founding spirit of the Salzburg Festival. Depicting the play’s themes of life and death, possession and loss, power and humility, the costumes tell the story of the play’s motifs and the characters within it.
Following the performance, the special costumes were sold as part of the auction gala. The lot contained all costumes of the leading characters in the play: Buhlschaft (Mistress), Tischgesellschaft (Banquet Guests), Guter Geselle (good Companion), Dicker und Dünner Vetter (Fat and Thin Cousin), Teufel (Devil), Mammon, and Tod (Death).
The charity auction, led by Simon de Pury, raised - in addition to sponsorship funds — over half a million in donations.
“Salzburg is special to Vivienne and me, and the house of Vivienne Westwood is honoured to be part of the amfAR gala, held in Austria for the first time. We created costumes in collaboration with the wonderful costume department of the Salzburg Festival for this performance. The costumes were then auctioned to raise funds for the lifesaving research and the ongoing fight to end the global AIDs epidemic.
Theatre is vital.” ~Andreas Kronthaler
Costumes Highlights
Buhlschaft (Mistress) 1, 2 & 3
At the heart of the play, the Buhlschaft character, who unlike in the original play appeared on stage three times, depicted at various stages of her life - symbolising resistance, transformation and vision, as well as past, present, and future. These different stages of life are characterised by three red gowns, the colour traditional for the character.
Buhlschaft 1 played by Deleila Piasko & Buhlschaft 2 played by Kathleen Morgeneyer
With a zest for life, the young Buhlschaft symbolises RESISTANCE. The second Buhlschaft is strong and empowered - she symbolises the TRANSFORMATION.
The first costume is from the Vivienne Westwood archive, a red silk faille taffeta gown, based on a historical cut, inspired by a ballet performance of Cinderella. The second costume is a light red and pink chiffon dress layered on a classic Vivienne Westwood corset; the playful gown is embellished with archival beaded ornaments and Westwood butterfly motif. The gown was created from the transformation of two original theatre gowns from the Salzburg costume archive, repurposed and combined into a single gown.
Buhlschaft 3 played by Sunnyi Melles
Sunnyi appears in a classic Vivienne Westwood ‘Bird of Paradise’ gown in red silk taffeta, featuring voluminous sleeves, a classic silhouette of the house, with added decorative embellishments repurposed from an original theatre costume, integrated into the new Westwood design. The look is romantic - she is strong and rooted in nature. The last Buhlschaft symbolises the VISION.
Herren der Tischgesellschaft (Banquet Guests) played by Leo Kebernik, Johannes Schöneberger, Jannik Görger, Luka Vlatkovic
Exuberant, pleasure-seeking revellers who serve as a living backdrop - underscoring the theme of transformation. Inspired by an original Jedermann costume, remade in the language of Vivienne Westwood - they are dressed in an eclectic mix of historic silhouettes combined with modern elements.
Tischgesellschaft (Banquet guests) played by Laura Schlittke and Johanna Egger
The first look was crafted from a combination of two original archive dresses from the Salzburg costume archive. The dramatic gown sits on a corset structure with overlapping exaggerated front peplum, layered with Elizabethan inspired sleeves, a classic Westwood silhouette, and cascading black feather skirt.
The second look was a 1950s inspired gown created using a simple black tulle prom dress from the Salzburg theatre archive as a base, reworked with layers of tulle and embellished with oversized crystal motifs and giant embroidered flowers. .
Tod (Death) played by Lidia Baich
Death takes the form of a feminine figure, playing the violin. Her corseted black gown with beaded shoulder caps with fringed sleeves drapes at the front and cascades to a long taffeta train. The costume was redesigned using pieces from a variety of costumes from the Salzburg theatre archive - taken apart, combined and re-sewn.
The auction lot contained further Vivienne Westwood costumes for the leading characters of the Gala performance including Guter Geselle (Good Companion), Dicker und Dünner Vetter (Fat and Thin Cousin), Teufel (Devil), and Mammon.
Inside each special Vivienne Westwood costume, the labels from the original Salzburg costumes are stitched alongside a specially designed Vivienne Westwood & amfAR label featuring the theatrical masks of the Salzburg festival logo.
As part of the auction, Vivienne Westwood’s studio collaborated with Gmundner Keramik to design a special hand painted charger plate. The plate depicts illustrations from the Westwood house archives representing the two central figures from the classic play, Buhlschaft (the mistress) and Jedermann (the Everyman) meeting at Domplatz in Salzburg, dated 24/08/2025.
To support or donate to amfAR please visit:
www.amfar.org/ways-to-support/