A SNAPSHOT of the late Vivienne Westwood’s career through the eyes of a collector can be seen at The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle.
Some of the designer’s most iconic looks from the 1980s and 90s are on display, thanks to loans from collector Peter Smithson. The capsule exhibition opened last week and runs until February next year.
Among the 12 outfits are a black velvet catsuit with gold ink featuring Westwood’s orb logo from the Portrait collection of 1990/91 and a MacPoiret tartan jacket, cap and micro-kilt with bustle, Peter Pan shirt, cardigan and orb tie from On Liberty 1994/95.
Clothing and accessories are set alongside objects from the museum’s collection that echo and contextualise the historical references in Westwood’s work.
Part of a suit of armour from the collection will be on display near an Armour jacket in check tweed with matching Criniscule skirt, Principal Boy shirt and deerstalker hat from the Time Machine autumn/winter 1988/89 collection.
Mr Smithson’s favourite outfit, a slashed denim jacket and jeans with a diagonally cut exaggerated smock shirt from Cut, Slash and Pull (spring/summer 1991) is sited near a miniature portrait from the early 17th century depicting a man wearing a slashed doublet showing the contrasting colour of the under layer.
Mr Smithson, a teacher from Cumbria, started collecting Westwood in the 1980s after being drawn to the designer’s early punk work and later seeing a man wearing her tartan in the Metropolitan suit. He didn’t set out to become a collector but aspired to have the confidence of the man wearing the trousers. He visited Westwood’s stores as a teenager and recalls looking at the clothes almost as objects of interest in a museum. With thousands of items in his collection and more than 100 full outfits he decided it was time to share some of them for others to enjoy.
Mr Smithson said: “I wanted people in the north of England to experience something that perhaps normally they would have to travel further afield for.”
“This is not just a collection, these are memories of my youth and growing up from when I was in my teens to the present day.”
The Museum had a great working relationship with Vivienne Westwood, so to be able to honour her work by showing his collection, set among items from our own that echo Westwood’s story and show how her work was influenced by art and history felt like the right fit.
