Latest / The Front / Punk fashion goddess Vivienne Westwood gets the NGV blockbuster treatment

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Punk fashion goddess Vivienne Westwood gets the NGV blockbuster treatment · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Thanks doing this. That's right, death and destruction from The Australian.
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  Speaker 1: This is the weekend edition of The Front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: Vivian Westwood, the designer so daring she made the rest
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  Speaker 1: of fashion look frumpy forever, is the subject of a
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  Speaker 1: new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. The NGV
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  Speaker 1: is one Australian arts institution that always seems to get
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  Speaker 1: it right. Fresh from its blockbuster shows on Japanese artist
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  Speaker 1: Yayoi Kosama, French Impressionism and Gabrielle Coco Chanel, today Culture
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  Speaker 1: editor Milander Rout joins me to discuss why this show,
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  Speaker 1: which also features the work of Comte de Garson visionary
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  Speaker 1: designer Ray Kawakubo, is a summer must see. Milander Route
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  Speaker 1: is The Australian's Culture editor and she's here to talk
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  Speaker 1: about one of the great icons of fashion, Melanda, who
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  Speaker 1: was Vivian Westwood.
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  Speaker 2: Well, she was an extraordinary designer. It kind of came
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  Speaker 2: through London in the punk rock era through her connection
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  Speaker 2: with the Sex Pistols, and so she really represented that
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  Speaker 2: time of change in the eighties and pushing fashion, really
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  Speaker 2: pushing the boundaries on everything.
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  Speaker 1: Stuff stuffy, Yeah. She and one of her husbands, Malcolm McLaren,
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  Speaker 1: the singer from the Sex Pistols, owned a shop in
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  Speaker 1: what was then a very sort of fancy part of
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  Speaker 1: London and it had various names, one of them was Sex.
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  Speaker 1: Great name for a shop. Absolutely, Why was she so different?
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  Speaker 1: What was different about Vivian Westwood? I think she just
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  Speaker 1: really challenged everything. And that's what those amazing fashion designers
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  Speaker 1: which you see in so many fashion exhibitions, they stand
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  Speaker 1: out because they disrupt. From Chanelle who put women in
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  Speaker 1: little black dresses before they couldn't wear black cas it
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  Speaker 1: was something associated with morning, and even putting women in pants.
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  Speaker 1: The fashion designers really do disrupt, and they disrupt what
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  Speaker 1: people wear and what was considered appropriate attire. Westwood came
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  Speaker 1: along in the seventies when fashion was generally relaxing. You know,
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  Speaker 1: people were wearing kaftans, they were wearing their hair out
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  Speaker 1: that already burned their bras, and she kind of brought
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  Speaker 1: back a lot of structured but also kind of shredded
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  Speaker 1: the clothes.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, and she really messed with the feminine shapes
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  Speaker 2: and put people in corsets and giant, huge, massive heels
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  Speaker 2: and obviously that famous scene where Naomi Campbell fell over
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  Speaker 2: on the runway wearing these insane within Westwood shoes.
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  Speaker 1: There's nothing you can do.
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  Speaker 3: I'm wearing rubber stockings, so I couldn't feel my toes
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  Speaker 3: and I couldn't really feel my feet.
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  Speaker 1: And so I went down. But it's okay. I got
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  Speaker 1: back up and I finished my walk.
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  Speaker 2: Afterwards, she told a reporter that she likes putting women
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  Speaker 2: in huge hills because they deserve to be idolized on
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  Speaker 2: a platform, So that's how she saw it.
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  Speaker 1: Probably the dress that she has designed that's been seen
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  Speaker 1: the most is one of Carrie Bradshaw's wedding dresses in
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  Speaker 1: Sex and the City. Tell me about that dress.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's just I mean, there's a beautiful picture of
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  Speaker 2: her running away from the wedding after a big unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: you know, decides not to turn up, which is awful.
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  Speaker 3: Carry I freaked out for a minute, but I'm reading now, Carrie,
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  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but it's just structured and it's over the
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  Speaker 3: top and it's beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: She was also known for tartan, which was a significant
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  Speaker 2: motif in her collections as well. But there was an
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  Speaker 2: amazing again pictures of Kate Moss walking down in this
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  Speaker 2: insane huge dress. So it's all about volume and presence
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  Speaker 2: and being there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that scene in Sex and the City, it's got
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  Speaker 1: kind of miss Havisham vibes, hasn't it. She's been jilted
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  Speaker 1: at the Altar, and Sex and the City is really
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  Speaker 1: about kind of sexual independence and sexual freedom. I thought
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  Speaker 1: the dress was a bit of a throwback to that
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  Speaker 1: kind of Deckenzian idea of she wanted the princess fantasy
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  Speaker 1: and she didn't get it. It was a princess dress.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's not because Vivian west would turn that
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  Speaker 2: upside down. I feel like by kind of sexualizing that
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  Speaker 2: or sexualizing that, but it's given women the power to
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  Speaker 2: wear corsets as opposed to being told to wear them,
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  Speaker 2: wearing them because they look fabulous and they make us
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  Speaker 2: look fabulous. So I kind of buy that idea, but
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  Speaker 2: I also think that it's just over the top and
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  Speaker 2: women dressing for themselves.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about Vivian Westwood because there's a new show
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  Speaker 1: at the National Gallery of Victoria, the NNGV. The NNGV
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  Speaker 1: keeps getting it right blockbuster shows, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, It's definitely the standout gallery around Australia in terms
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  Speaker 2: of their numbers that come in and the visitors that
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  Speaker 2: get They've also had blockbusters from Chanelle. This year they
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  Speaker 2: had the French Impressionists. So they're very good at presenting
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  Speaker 2: exhibitions that are accessible to everybody and that everyone wants
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  Speaker 2: to go and see.
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  Speaker 1: They don't seem to be bound up in the kind
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  Speaker 1: of fear of showing something that's too popular, which seems
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  Speaker 1: to be a concern with some galleries.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean it's that idea that you can have
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  Speaker 2: extraordinary art and you can also have art that's popular.
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  Speaker 2: Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's an inferior version
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  Speaker 2: of art. But a lot of our arts companies around
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  Speaker 2: the country are kind of suffering. A lot of galleries
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  Speaker 2: are in deficit, a lot of opera companies, ballet companies
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  Speaker 2: and the MTV is kind of the shining beacon of
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  Speaker 2: It is incredible in terms of the exhibitions and the
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  Speaker 2: people that come through. And isn't that the main idea
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  Speaker 2: that the more people that see the art better.
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  Speaker 1: One of our reporters, Rosemary Neil, has been doing a
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  Speaker 1: very close look at what's going wrong with arts companies.
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  Speaker 1: Is it about that balance between the expectation of government
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  Speaker 1: support and selling tickets.
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  Speaker 2: I think so, But there's a whole lot of things
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  Speaker 2: that have happened since post COVID. People aren't going out
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  Speaker 2: as much. We have obviously a cost of living crisis
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  Speaker 2: as well. So what Rosemary explored is the reasons behind that.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, construction costs for the new wing at
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  Speaker 2: the Art Gallery of New souft Wales running that new wing.
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  Speaker 2: Everything's going up and up, and the ticket sales really
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  Speaker 2: aren't matching that. So they're relying more and more on
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  Speaker 2: government funding, and they're relying more on philanthropic funding. So
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  Speaker 2: it's a multi layered and complex issue. And one of
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  Speaker 2: the solutions suggested by the New Softwales government in a
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  Speaker 2: summit that was held earlier in the year was tax breaks,
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  Speaker 2: so tax reform to encourage more donations. But there is
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  Speaker 2: this idea that the government can't keep funding them to
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  Speaker 2: the level they need, and the shortfall between the government
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  Speaker 2: funding and the money that they can get from ticket
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  Speaker 2: sales is just widening.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up the real business model behind the catwalk craziness.
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  Speaker 1: Some Vivian Westwood clothes might be hard to wear or
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  Speaker 1: hard to sell in a short. But they're nothing compared
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  Speaker 1: to Conde Garson, which is part of the show as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Conde Gassons is done by Ray Kawakubo and her
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  Speaker 2: work is displayed alongside Vivian Westwood, and the curators at
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  Speaker 2: the MGV thought they were a good companion piece because
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  Speaker 2: Vivian was so dramatic with shapes as well. But Conde
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  Speaker 2: Gassons is insane, like they're the pictures of the rain
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  Speaker 2: Way where you think, I don't even know how they
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  Speaker 2: got that dress on that person or how they walk
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  Speaker 2: in it. And she really disrupted this idea of shapes
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  Speaker 2: and what women should wear and messing with the body
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  Speaker 2: shape and all that kind of stuff. So they're going
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  Speaker 2: to look quite spectacular next to each other.
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  Speaker 1: It makes me wonder a little bit about the business
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  Speaker 1: of fashion when you see these outlandish fashion shows which
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  Speaker 1: are just about getting vision on the TV news and
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  Speaker 1: photos in the magazines. That's about selling perfume scarves. Yeah, no,
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  Speaker 1: maybe wristwatches, accessories. It's not actually about selling those clothes,
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  Speaker 1: is it.
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  Speaker 4: No.
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  Speaker 2: And it's funny because there was a scene in The
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  Speaker 2: Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep's character explains the fashion
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  Speaker 2: ecosystem to Anne Hathaway's character, the editorial assistant who has
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  Speaker 2: no idea about fashion.
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  Speaker 4: What you don't know is that that sweater is not
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  Speaker 4: just blue. It's not to Requois, it's not Lapist, it's
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  Speaker 4: actually Cerulian. And you're also blithely underware of the fact
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  Speaker 4: that in two thousand and two Oscar Laurenta did a
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  Speaker 4: collection of Cerulian gowns, and then I think it was
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  Speaker 4: Eve Salaol, wasn't it who showed Cerulian military jackets, and
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  Speaker 4: then Cerullian quickly showed up in the collections of eight
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  Speaker 4: different designers. I'm going to filter down through the department
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  Speaker 4: stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual
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  Speaker 4: corner where you no doubt fished it out of some
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  Speaker 4: clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and
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  Speaker 4: countless jobs. And it's sort of comical how you think
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  Speaker 4: that you've made a choice that exempts you from the
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  Speaker 4: fashion industry, when in fact you're wearing a sweater that
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  Speaker 4: was selected for you by the people in this room
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  Speaker 4: from a pile of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Is these shows at the top they set the tone.
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  Speaker 2: They have these insane, crazy garments. They may pick up
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  Speaker 2: a color or a cut, but we will all be
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  Speaker 2: wearing those clothes, just not straight off the runway. They
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  Speaker 2: may get knocked off by Zara. Most likely we were
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  Speaker 2: in a couple of years later. So they are more
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  Speaker 2: than just images. They do impact how we all dress.
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  Speaker 2: They just filter through the high street labels, and the
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  Speaker 2: high street labels take inspiration from that, and then sometimes
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  Speaker 2: movie makers will take inspiration from that, or fashion shows
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  Speaker 2: will be inspired by a movie. So it's this kind
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  Speaker 2: of cultural eco system that although we are not walking
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  Speaker 2: around in Vivian Westwood and Condegasons, their designs and their
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  Speaker 2: inspiration will eventually filter down to what we wear.
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  Speaker 1: And also we might not be able to afford a
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  Speaker 1: Dior suit or Oceanelle dress, but we can buy a lipstick.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and as ire a knockoff.
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  Speaker 1: Milanderraut is The Australian's Culture Editor. The exhibition Westwood Kawakubo
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  Speaker 1: is on from December seventh, twenty twenty five, to April nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six at the National Gallery of Victoria. You
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  Speaker 1: can read all Australia's best coverage of the arts and
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  Speaker 1: entertainment right now at the Australian dot com dot au
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  Speaker 1: slash culture, or by picking up a copy of the
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  Speaker 1: Weekend Australian. This episode of the Front was produced and
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  Speaker 1: hosted by me Claire Harvey, with editing and sound designed
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  Speaker 1: by Tiffany Dimak. Thanks for joining us on the Front
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  Speaker 1: this week. Our team also includes Kristen Amiot, Leat Sammaglu,
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  Speaker 1: Josh Burton, Stephanie Coombs and Jasper Leek, who also wrote
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  Speaker 1: our music.