Latest news with #Kawakubo
Business of Fashion
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business of Fashion
Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo Paired for Blockbuster Exhibition
Two era-defining avant-garde fashion designers, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo, will be brought together in a blockbuster summer exhibition announced on Tuesday by the National Gallery of Victoria. It has been more than 20 years since Westwood's work has been exhibited extensively in Australia, and the NGV show will be the first since the designer's death in December 2023. Curated by the NGV, with works drawn from the museum's extensive fashion collection supplemented by loans from the Metropolitan Museum, the V&A and others, Westwood | Kawakubo will open in Melbourne on 7 December. Westwood came to prominence as the designer behind the tattered, torn and often obscene garments of London's 1970s punk scene, before moving towards irreverent but historically grounded tailoring and corsetry in the early 1980s. Later her climate activism became a critical component of her life and work. After establishing Comme des Garçons in her native Japan, Kawakubo appalled the fashion establishment when she began showing in Paris in 1981. Her deconstructed and distressed designs won her a fervent underground fanbase and, with the hindsight of history, they have gained critical approval too. In 2017 Kawakubo was the subject of a rare standalone exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum; it was only the second time the Costume Institute had run an exhibition of a living designer, the first being Yves Saint Laurent in 1983. Katie Somerville, the NGV's senior curator of fashion and textiles and the exhibition's co-curator, says while Westwood and Kawakubo's works are aesthetically distinct, there is 'a lovely symmetry' in the designers' lives and practices. Both designers were self-taught and they were born a year apart. They also built businesses in an industry that was, and remains, male-dominated in its upper echelons. When planning the exhibition, Somerville researched whether the pairing had ever been made before, 'and no one had', she says. 'So that's always a really exciting space to be in … when you can present an exhibition concept that does break new ground.' Rather than a chronological retrospective, the exhibition will be curated thematically, with rooms devoted to punk, the designers' engagement with the body and their historical influences. More than 140 works will be on display, including early-career punk ensembles by Westwood, alongside a tartan gown worn by Kate Moss in the designer's 1993-94 Anglomania collection. From Comme des Garçons there will be a custom dress worn by Rihanna to the 2017 Met Gala and 40 garments donated by Kawakubo for the exhibition. The NGV has become known for its double-bill blockbusters, including Warhol/Ai Weiwei and Keith Haring/Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. Westwood/Kawakubo will be the first fashion pairing and the first to feature female artists. 'I think when you bring two individual artists together … [there are] wonderful new ways of seeing their work that come out of that comparison,' Somerville says. 'We're not for a minute saying that they're the same or similar, but there's enough there that connects them to make that sort of back and forth of looking at their work together … really exciting and productive.' By Alyx Gorman
The Advertiser
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons paired up at NGV
Iconoclastic fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo will both feature in a blockbuster exhibition. The National Gallery of Victoria show, which opens in December, pairs the two influential designers for the first time. Westwood, from the UK, helped define the punk aesthetic, while Japanese designer Kawakubo dramatically subverted ideas about garment shape and functionality. "These two women challenged conventions for beauty, taste and gender through their designs, and established a lasting legacy of fashion history that continues to inspire meaning today," said gallery director Tony Ellwood. Westwood | Kawakubo follows the institution's record-breaking Kusama exhibition last summer, which attracted more than 570,000 people. Both designers were self taught and were born a year apart, Westwood in 1941 and Kawakubo in 1942. The show opens with Westwood's revolutionary punk outfits from the 1970s, such as the bondage trousers and parachute jackets worn by London bands like The Sex Pistols. There are also designs from more recent eras of popular culture, including Westwood's runway version of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding dress from the Sex and the City movie, and a Comme des Garçons outfit worn by pop singer Rhianna on the Met Gala red carpet. Kawakubo has given dozens of garments to the NGV for the exhibition, including the Met Gala dress, and designs from the Comme des Garçons 2025 Spring Summer runway collection. Westwood | Kawakubo will open at NGV International from December 7. Iconoclastic fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo will both feature in a blockbuster exhibition. The National Gallery of Victoria show, which opens in December, pairs the two influential designers for the first time. Westwood, from the UK, helped define the punk aesthetic, while Japanese designer Kawakubo dramatically subverted ideas about garment shape and functionality. "These two women challenged conventions for beauty, taste and gender through their designs, and established a lasting legacy of fashion history that continues to inspire meaning today," said gallery director Tony Ellwood. Westwood | Kawakubo follows the institution's record-breaking Kusama exhibition last summer, which attracted more than 570,000 people. Both designers were self taught and were born a year apart, Westwood in 1941 and Kawakubo in 1942. The show opens with Westwood's revolutionary punk outfits from the 1970s, such as the bondage trousers and parachute jackets worn by London bands like The Sex Pistols. There are also designs from more recent eras of popular culture, including Westwood's runway version of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding dress from the Sex and the City movie, and a Comme des Garçons outfit worn by pop singer Rhianna on the Met Gala red carpet. Kawakubo has given dozens of garments to the NGV for the exhibition, including the Met Gala dress, and designs from the Comme des Garçons 2025 Spring Summer runway collection. Westwood | Kawakubo will open at NGV International from December 7. Iconoclastic fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo will both feature in a blockbuster exhibition. The National Gallery of Victoria show, which opens in December, pairs the two influential designers for the first time. Westwood, from the UK, helped define the punk aesthetic, while Japanese designer Kawakubo dramatically subverted ideas about garment shape and functionality. "These two women challenged conventions for beauty, taste and gender through their designs, and established a lasting legacy of fashion history that continues to inspire meaning today," said gallery director Tony Ellwood. Westwood | Kawakubo follows the institution's record-breaking Kusama exhibition last summer, which attracted more than 570,000 people. Both designers were self taught and were born a year apart, Westwood in 1941 and Kawakubo in 1942. The show opens with Westwood's revolutionary punk outfits from the 1970s, such as the bondage trousers and parachute jackets worn by London bands like The Sex Pistols. There are also designs from more recent eras of popular culture, including Westwood's runway version of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding dress from the Sex and the City movie, and a Comme des Garçons outfit worn by pop singer Rhianna on the Met Gala red carpet. Kawakubo has given dozens of garments to the NGV for the exhibition, including the Met Gala dress, and designs from the Comme des Garçons 2025 Spring Summer runway collection. Westwood | Kawakubo will open at NGV International from December 7. Iconoclastic fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo will both feature in a blockbuster exhibition. The National Gallery of Victoria show, which opens in December, pairs the two influential designers for the first time. Westwood, from the UK, helped define the punk aesthetic, while Japanese designer Kawakubo dramatically subverted ideas about garment shape and functionality. "These two women challenged conventions for beauty, taste and gender through their designs, and established a lasting legacy of fashion history that continues to inspire meaning today," said gallery director Tony Ellwood. Westwood | Kawakubo follows the institution's record-breaking Kusama exhibition last summer, which attracted more than 570,000 people. Both designers were self taught and were born a year apart, Westwood in 1941 and Kawakubo in 1942. The show opens with Westwood's revolutionary punk outfits from the 1970s, such as the bondage trousers and parachute jackets worn by London bands like The Sex Pistols. There are also designs from more recent eras of popular culture, including Westwood's runway version of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding dress from the Sex and the City movie, and a Comme des Garçons outfit worn by pop singer Rhianna on the Met Gala red carpet. Kawakubo has given dozens of garments to the NGV for the exhibition, including the Met Gala dress, and designs from the Comme des Garçons 2025 Spring Summer runway collection. Westwood | Kawakubo will open at NGV International from December 7.
Perth Now
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons paired up at NGV
Iconoclastic fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo will both feature in a blockbuster exhibition. The National Gallery of Victoria show, which opens in December, pairs the two influential designers for the first time. Westwood, from the UK, helped define the punk aesthetic, while Japanese designer Kawakubo dramatically subverted ideas about garment shape and functionality. "These two women challenged conventions for beauty, taste and gender through their designs, and established a lasting legacy of fashion history that continues to inspire meaning today," said gallery director Tony Ellwood. Westwood | Kawakubo follows the institution's record-breaking Kusama exhibition last summer, which attracted more than 570,000 people. Both designers were self taught and were born a year apart, Westwood in 1941 and Kawakubo in 1942. The show opens with Westwood's revolutionary punk outfits from the 1970s, such as the bondage trousers and parachute jackets worn by London bands like The Sex Pistols. There are also designs from more recent eras of popular culture, including Westwood's runway version of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding dress from the Sex and the City movie, and a Comme des Garçons outfit worn by pop singer Rhianna on the Met Gala red carpet. Kawakubo has given dozens of garments to the NGV for the exhibition, including the Met Gala dress, and designs from the Comme des Garçons 2025 Spring Summer runway collection. Westwood | Kawakubo will open at NGV International from December 7.
The Age
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
The unlikely fashion collaboration that will be a summer blockbuster
The National Gallery of Victoria has announced the most unlikely fashion collaboration since Karl Lagerfeld and Diet Coke for its upcoming summer blockbuster, Westwood|Kawakubo. Organisers are adamant that the double billing of Dame Vivienne Westwood, who died in 2022, and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo, 82, is not a downgrade from the solo spotlight given to Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier at previous NGV summer blockbusters. Showing Westwood's corsets and mini-crinis alongside Kawakubo's abstract explorations is a clash worthy of both designers' punk origins. 'It is unusual for us to do this in the context of a fashion exhibition, but the NGV has established a tradition of these pairings with a series of exhibitions like Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei (2015) and Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat (2019),' says NGV senior fashion curator Katie Somerville. 'What is exciting is that we finally get to do it focusing on fashion designers. It's also exciting that it's the first time we've done one of these pairings with women.' Last year's Yayoi Kusama summer blockbuster attracted 570,537 visitors, making it the most visited ticketed exhibition ever staged in the gallery's history. The Westwood|Kawakubo exhibition, opening December 7, features Westwood dresses worn by Kate Moss on the Paris runway and by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City: The Movie, along with more than 40 works recently donated by Kawakubo to the NGV. Dresses will be loaned from New York's Metropolitan Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Palais Galliera in Paris, and the Vivienne Westwood archive, shown alongside the NGV's extensive collection. Westwood and Kawakubo's work will be presented side by side in themes such as Punk and Provocation, Rupture and Reinvention. 'I think the comparison of designers should be done much more often because it reveals more unexpected things,' says US fashion historian Valerie Steele, who contributed to the exhibition catalogue. 'The problem with single-person exhibitions is that they tend to be hagiographies controlled by the designer or the house.'
Sydney Morning Herald
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The unlikely fashion collaboration that will be a summer blockbuster
The National Gallery of Victoria has announced the most unlikely fashion collaboration since Karl Lagerfeld and Diet Coke for its upcoming summer blockbuster, Westwood|Kawakubo. Organisers are adamant that the double billing of Dame Vivienne Westwood, who died in 2022, and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo, 82, is not a downgrade from the solo spotlight given to Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier at previous NGV summer blockbusters. Showing Westwood's corsets and mini-crinis alongside Kawakubo's abstract explorations is a clash worthy of both designers' punk origins. 'It is unusual for us to do this in the context of a fashion exhibition, but the NGV has established a tradition of these pairings with a series of exhibitions like Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei (2015) and Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat (2019),' says NGV senior fashion curator Katie Somerville. 'What is exciting is that we finally get to do it focusing on fashion designers. It's also exciting that it's the first time we've done one of these pairings with women.' Last year's Yayoi Kusama summer blockbuster attracted 570,537 visitors, making it the most visited ticketed exhibition ever staged in the gallery's history. The Westwood|Kawakubo exhibition, opening December 7, features Westwood dresses worn by Kate Moss on the Paris runway and by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City: The Movie, along with more than 40 works recently donated by Kawakubo to the NGV. Dresses will be loaned from New York's Metropolitan Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Palais Galliera in Paris, and the Vivienne Westwood archive, shown alongside the NGV's extensive collection. Westwood and Kawakubo's work will be presented side by side in themes such as Punk and Provocation, Rupture and Reinvention. 'I think the comparison of designers should be done much more often because it reveals more unexpected things,' says US fashion historian Valerie Steele, who contributed to the exhibition catalogue. 'The problem with single-person exhibitions is that they tend to be hagiographies controlled by the designer or the house.'
