Vivienne Westwood Red Label A/W11 – London Fashion Week

Some say Vivienne Westwood  doesn’t renew herself enough and just keeps reusing the same type of prints and shapes season after season, but that is what is called a signature, isn’t it?  We love Vivienne Westwood for her baroque style, her beautiful prints, including tartans, her use of colours, her puffed but structured shapes, and most of all we love the soul intrinsically woven in every single garment. Do I worship Vivienne Westwood? The answer is yes, a thousand times yes. And the moment when the new collection is unveiled, is one of intense joy for me, including the anticipation.

This collection has been inspired by Portobello Road market, “the market stall sellers and vintage collectors, the fruit and veg men with their aprons, the army surplus stalls, the countryside gentry and the kids returning from the nights out. The collection is about London life, and this historical market that draws all classes of our society. It is about Britishness”, explained the designer.

This source of inspiration finds a perfect echo in the theme chosen for this collection, Lewis Carroll’s “Alice through the looking glass”, as it’s all about British society and constant change.

The signature looks from Vivienne Westwood were all there: beautiful knitwear, great mix of prints, notably leopard with tartans, wide leg trousers with tennis stripes, asymmetric dresses, dandy like outfits like the velvet 3-piece suit, teamed as always with exuberant crayola-like make-up and dishevelled hair, as if the models, like Alice and the Red Queen, had just run, run and run. One of the most impressive looks was sported by a model whose face was completely covered with fine gold leaves.

Laurie Guillem