In honor of his life associate and collaborator Vivienne Westwood, who handed away final 12 months, Andreas Kronthaler revisited and reworked among the most iconic items they codesigned over time for spring 2024.
Primarily based on the archive he constructed round Westwood’s personal wardrobe, the gathering affords the uncommon alternative for die-hard followers to gather iconic items they need they’d procured, such because the inferno jacket from the autumn 2005 assortment “‘Exhibition,” the pink test cape from the spring 2014 assortment “All the pieces is Related,” the large floor-length jacquard bow hat from the autumn 2009 assortment, and the moire bridal robe with exaggerated corset design from the spring 2012 assortment “Battle & Peace,” worn by Westwood’s granddaughter Cora Corré to shut the present.
“I believed what I did was applicable. I didn’t really feel like I ought to go too far. I didn’t wish to do a trend present within the traditional sense with showpieces and fantasy. I needed to base it on the garments I archived from her personal wardrobe, which was fairly an emotional journey,” he stated.
“After I was taking pictures them, I felt this must be the subsequent assortment, one way or the other the bottom of it. I didn’t know the way to do it. After which I believed, ‘Okay, I’m simply gonna put the numbers in a hat’ and I picked 34, which is the years I’ve been collectively together with her,” the designer defined backstage.
In a season the place many designers went search for essentially the most commercially viable items within the archive, Kronthaler supplied a unique method. It confirmed a broad vary throughout the context of punk, international affect, and subverting the British social costume codes and gender identification. Though on paper it’s a biggest hits remix, it felt as contemporary and real as if it had been model new.
Kronthaler humbly stated the model is “99 % her,” however the reality is that he’s simply as necessary within the success of the model as Westwood’s legacy. His love for her, and his encyclopedic data of the model is what retains Vivienne Westwood alive as a enterprise.
