Two trailblazing designers will be the subjects of a new exhibition at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria with Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo the stars of the blockbuster show in December.
Westwood’s work has been exhibited in Australia for over two decades. The punk style creator-turned-high-end designer died in December 2023 and the new exhibit features her pieces from its own fashion collection as well as loans from the Metropolitan Museum, the V&A and others.
Opening in Melbourne on 7 December, Westwood’s work will be seen alongside that of another game-changer who had a massive influence on late 20th century fashion and continues to do so today.
Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo is, like Westwood, seen as one of fashion’s pioneers. Her deconstructed and distressed designs drove fashion trends in the 1980s and 1990s, while in the next decade her Dover Street Market concept was as influential on retail trends.
In 2017 she had the rare honour of being the subject of standalone exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art — only the second time the Costume Institute had run an exhibition celebrating a living designer. It hadn’t done that since featuring Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.
Kawakubo has donated 40 garments for the new exhibition in Melbourne.
Katie Somerville, NGV senior curator of fashion and textiles and the exhibition’s co-curator, said the two self-taught designers’ style may have been very different from each other but they have things in common. Apart from being a similar age and rising to prominence around the same time, both have been trend drivers and strong women making an impact in a sector still dominated by men.
Importantly too, their work has never been shown together before.
As for the exhibition itself, it will be themed rather than strictly chronological, looking at movements like punk, as well as historical influences and their relationship with the body.
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