Andreas Kronthaler first laid eyes on Vivienne Westwood as an aspirant student of fashion at Vienna’s Academy of Applied Arts. It was 1988 or 1989, he recalled today, “She was in this room, sitting, just smoking cigarettes—she smoked a ton in those days. I had to present my portfolio . . . I went into this room and she was sitting there in this famous catsuit. She just struck me as so amazing. Really superwoman, you know?”
Westwood clearly inspires not only her husband but many others too. Shortly before this show began, a cool-looking punk band came and played outside the venue, uninvited and unannounced, but much admired.
Although nothing so formal as a Pearl anniversary present, today’s Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood was a love letter of sorts from him to her, a wildly styled boys-as-girls and girls-as-boys mishmash of mini-crinis, askew ruffled slit dresses, dirndls, catsuits, and cowl dresses. Matty Bovan was among the models, Rose McGowan, Paz de la Huerta, and Charles Jeffrey were in the audience, and the atmosphere was heightened by three goth-raver podium dancers who gave it their all. One of those dancers and two models fell victim to the unforgiving Joseph Cheaney–produced Westwood platforms, but they got up and kept going—no drama. The only true stumble here was the WE DO BIG SIZES T-shirt. Although layered with other graphics, they were exactly the same as the shirt presented by the excellent Rottingdean Bazaar at the MAN show in January—and the first RB knew about it was when they saw the pictures come up on Vogue Runway. They were understandably astonished. In a show starring Bovan and attended by Jeffrey, Westwood’s PR said tonight that the T-shirt was part of a “shout-out” to young London designers, but agreed wholeheartedly that Rottingdean Bazaar should have been made party to that shout-out before it got shouted. I would imagine this was more of a genuine mistake than a thoughtless appropriation, but team Westwood should definitely reach out to make amends: maybe a proper collaboration, next time?
UPDATE: Oy vey. Team Kronthaler for Westwood really did screw up on this one. Not only did they take Rottingdean Bazaar’s graphic without permission, but the POWER FULL HUMAN graph-text over it is by Louise Gray—and they didn’t tell/ask her either! Let's call this accordingly: a massive fuckup.
