By the time Dame Vivienne Westwood herself had done her little swagger down the runway to close the show, all was forgiven. She had a tense crowd in her hands, when things almost ran late by 2 hours. In a fashion week calendar that runs from one show to another without barely enough time to breathe (or dare we say, eat!) in-between shows, there was a lot of impatient toe-tapping going on.
Needless to say, these things happen. Rain, a grid locked Paris and a late show before hand were beyond Westwood’s control.
Once things got underway though it was a bustling, bust-up of everything brilliant about the Westwood world. Boxy shirts, with spangly vests led into tartans, bold accessories, heart shapes, candy stripes, and taffeta plumes. Vivienne’s trusty little bag of tricks was emptied out before us, with a blast of freshness coming courtesy of the colours, fabrics and silhouettes. Wrapped and somewhat alarming (in a surgical bandage kind-of-way) head contraptions were perhaps the strangest addition to a collection that focused on the past, the present, and climate change as stated in the show notes.
She might have been late to start the show, but at the end of the day the mention of climate change reminds us all that there are actually bigger things to worry about. And it’s never too late to start making a change.
By Scott Stephenson