A year of intermittent lockdowns has affected everyone in different and unexpected ways. For Andreas Kronthaler and Vivienne Westwood, one happy unintended consequence was a passionate rediscovery of My Fair Lady. Combined with a timely refurbishment of their 1980s vintage couture store on London’s Davies Street, the result was a collection and video titled Mayfair Lady. “It’s an incredible place,” said Kronthaler of the area. “It’s full of history, and you can feel that it was once the center of the world’s most powerful country.”
Those days are long gone, but the grandeur remains. In the film, the couple and their talented cast (headed by Caroline Polachek) showcase Kronthaler’s collection in and around the store, strolling giddily past Dunhill’s master-of-the-universe members’ club Bourdon House and pacing the area around the corner recently redeveloped by Hussein Chalayan. Dame Vivienne acted as lark; Kronthaler walked where the pavement had always stayed beneath his feet.
The collection was a joyfully haphazard collage of references—flower girl headpiece, professor’s robe—sprinkled within a typically anarchic Kronthaler context. Many of the pieces were upcycled, and the designer said his shapes were sometimes dictated by the scraps of fabric available. Tulle, lamé, and knitwear entwined to offer contemporary Pygmalions tools for their own reshaping. “We express ourselves in clothes when we dress up,” said Kronthaler in his notes. In this collection his expression seemed sweetly in tune with the times.
