The biggest Vivienne Westwood auction since her death last December is coming to London tomorrow (June 20).
Few captured and created British culture like her. Now you can buy a piece of her legacy — anarchic and visionary to the end. During the two-day auction at Bermondsey’s Kerry Taylor Auctions 124 archival collectable looks will go under the hammer. “This is the biggest Westwood sale since her death, with 124 lots of archive pieces which chart her entire career,” says the auctioneer, who in the past has sold Audrey Hepburn’s haute couture and Princess Diana’s velvet ‘Travolta’ dress, which made £220,000 in 2019.
The Mr Steven Philip Collection: Part 1 is thought to be one of the most extensive collections of Vivienne Westwood in the world — the second part of the auction will take place in December. Philip, co-founder of London vintage boutique Rellik, has been slowly building the collection for thirty years.
Both Westwood’s career and tomorrow’s auction begin at 430 Kings Road, with the SEX shop, run with her then partner and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and famed for its fetish fashions and pink, foam letter sign. A full look from 1974, its opening year, is Lot 1; complete with ‘Prostitute’ black stilettos, which read ‘especially for SEX’ on the insole. “Then we move into ‘Seditionaries’, to which the shop changed its name in December 1976,” Taylor says. “We have a fantastic all-black, bondage slash parachute set.” The lot is estimated to make £3,000 to £5,000.
Vintage Westwood prices have boomed since her passing, Taylor explains: “We had a sale in March which I put my less good Westwood in, and the prices were astonishing.” The gift is that the looks were crafted to last. “Westwood was an original in so many ways — her character, her spirit and her design. But she was also a stickler for quality,” she says. “When I look at ready-to-wear-now and compare them with Westwood, they are miles apart.”
The AW81/82 collection, her and McLaren’s first catwalk show, marked a turning point. “They got fed up with the whole punk thing. Everyone was walking down King’s Road with a Mohican, and so Lot 8 is the opposite of the dark, anarchistic era. It was the beginning of the New Romantic movement; the boys are wearing make-up, flowing shirts — frills galore!” she says.
It was called ‘Pirates’, and their debut runway show was defined by squiggle print shirts and bicorne hats. “It was all swashbuckling romance. I can imagine the punk aficionados who carried on into the Eighties being dismayed by the turn of events,” Taylor says. And it was quintessential Westwood by design. “The Pirate shirts are absolute copies of men’s 18th-century shirts,” Taylor says. “She was fascinated by the history of antique costume and textiles, and spent a long time in the V&A.” Seven looks first seen on the Pirates catwalk are for sale. “You had Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow on Top of The Pops wearing these pieces. There was a real synthesis between fashion and music then, which makes these pieces unique.”
Also plucked from the V&A’s galleries are Westwood’s corsets, which have enjoyed a renaissance among Gen-Z today. “We come to the early Nineties, and she produces these really sexy corsets made of stretched lycra,” says Taylor. Of the 19 for sale, the best include front panels with Boucher’s Daphnis and Chloe print, Gainsborough’s dog from Tristram and Fox and Marline Dietrich’s lips, in denim.
Elsewhere is an orange toga dress with a Matisse print (“She was always pinching stuff without proper permission. I adore that about her,” Taylor quips) from the AW82-83 collection, styled with a satin bra over-top. “She was inspired by seeing women in the South African townships wearing bras on top of their clothes as a status symbol. She thought that was amusing,” she says.
And a highlight? “We’ve got a pair of green, mock croc super-elevated platforms, autographed by Vivienne,” says Taylor; the same style that saw Naomi Campbell tumble down the catwalk in 1993. “They are in a very large size, and might fit men — I think every drag queen in London is going to be looking at that lot.”
The queens will have some competition. Bidding at auction will be youngsters wanting to add flair to their wardrobes, vintage dealers from across the world, stylists on behalf of celebrity clients, fashion house archivists and major museums. Also populating this sale are early couture looks from Chanel, Dior and Balmain, as well as an Issey Miyake blue acrylic breastplate estimated at £20,000-£30,000, which has already enticed one unnamed A-lister to try it on for size.
But all will have their eyes on Westwood. “She was a true English eccentric,” Taylor muses. “And God, do we need more people like that today.”
