Dame Vivienne Westwood’s granddaughter closed the show
When Cora Corré, the granddaughter of Dame Vivienne Westwood, strode through the hyper-gilded salons of Hôtel de la Marine as the bride in Andreas Kronthaler’s first show since the designer’s death, it was hard the hold back the tears. She was dressed in her grandmother’s spirit: a skimpy white lace romper with a busty baroque neckline and sky-high platform boots – the irreverent, sexy, beautiful bride of punk dreams. Immaculately executed, Kronthaler’s show cemented the legacy of Dame Vivienne as a style that transcends fashion: an institution, an aesthetic, and most of all a movement; a visual ethos of philosophy and activism that will forever appeal – and be kept alive – by the community she created.
It was the first show without Vivienne Westwood
“It is tough, to be honest. There are moments when some things trigger something and it really hits you,” a solemn Kronthaler said backstage before the show, surrounded by friends of the house hugging and bursting into tears. “But being busy is really helpful. It’s like breathing, isn’t it? It comes in waves. I worked and worked and worked. I worked through it. Even last year. I spent as much time with her as…” he paused. “I haven’t travelled for one and a half years. Maybe I can get back into it.” After his wife’s death on 29 December 2022 at 81, following a period of illness, Kronthaler’s team went to work on her memorial – beautifully organised in Southwark Cathedral on February 16th – while he got to work on a collection he called a tribute.
It imagined the tribe of Vivienne Westwood
“I see it as very personal to her,” Kronthaler said of the collection. He named it after Dame Vivienne’s birthplace of Tintwistle in Cheshire and based it on a vision she had once told him about. “She imagined these people from the north coming down to London and changing the status quo; taking over. They would wear clothes to match that big important occasion.” On the backdrop of Hôtel de la Marine’s pre-Revolution gilded salons, Kronthaler sent out his clan of revolutionaries, dressed like futuristic Anglo-Saxon tribespeople in kilts and checks and tracksuits and gingham and jockstraps and thigh high boots and cascading cocktail dresses and bourgeois bows and Toile de Jouy that looked like cave paintings. It was magnificent. A skirt gesturally pulled up at the front paid tribute to “the masturbation skirt” Dame Vivienne and Kronthaler invented together.
Much of it was made from Dame Vivienne’s antique fabrics
In his poetic self-penned show notes, which were so emotional they’re hard quote, Kronthaler wrote how he had used some of the 17th century fabrics he and Dame Vivienne collected together. “I hope you don’t mind,” he noted. “Everything is really leftovers,” he said backstage. “I had a couple of lengths and got it out of the wardrobe and said, that’s it. I’m going to use it up now. And give it a new lease of life or whatever you call it.” Infused into garments that could have been haute couture, the antique fabrics imbued the collection with soul – not just that of the history they’d seen, but of the shared memories of Kronthaler and Dame Vivienne that lived within them. The notion was reinforced by a classical soundtrack, interrupted – in true Westwood style – by AC/DC’s T.N.T.
It marked a new chapter for Andreas Kronthaler
Because Dame Vivienne had already renamed her Paris line from Gold Label to Kronthaler’s name, the collection felt like a natural progression of his visual identity, albeit a little more polished and a little more couture. Kronthaler said she had wanted him to work on her eponymous London line after her death, but that he wants to put it on a different platform. “I think it needs its own space and I think it will have to be shown in London, at home. I don’t think it needs to be connected with fashion week, either.” Speaking of platforms, Kronthaler finished his show notes with a special request of Dame Vivienne’s: “You once said to me that you can take everything away, just leave me my platform shoes because one can’t do without them. Maybe the most important thing you ever taught me was to put the woman on a pedestal.”
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