From Punk to Provocation: Westwood and Kawakubo’s Iconic Fashion Journey

Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo, two of the most influential fashion designers of recent times, will star in this exhibition curated by the National Gallery of Victoria.The exhibition, curated by the National Gallery of Victoria, is the first since Westwood’s death and marks 20 years since the previous exhibition of her work in Australia.

It was Westwood’s torn clothes and punk aesthetic that shot Westwood to fame on the London scene in the 1970s, as did Kawakubo with her deconstructed and torn designs.Kawakubo with her deconstructed, distressed designs a decade later, after founding Comme des Garçons in her hometown of Japan.

In 2017, Kawakubo’s work starred in an unusual stand-alone exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, the second time the Costume Institute organized an exhibition to a living designer, the first being Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.

Despite being aesthetically different, there is an affinity in their trajectory and in their work, being both self-taught and born within a year of each other, they created companies in an industry that was, and still is, a territory dominated by men in its highest positions.

Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo created a rule-breaking radicalism

Westwood | Kawakubo brings together the work of more than 140 works encompassed in themes including Punk and Provocation, Rupture, Reinvention and The Body and the Power of Clothes. The opening of the exhibition will take place on December 7th. 

A tartan dress worn by Kate Moss in Westwood’s Anglomania collection (1993-94) along with the custom-made dress worn by Rihanna at the Met Gala in 2017 by Kawakubo will be among the works on display, donated by both the Metropolitan Museu and the designers themselves.