Perhaps Vivienne Westwood became a fashion icon almost in spite of herself. Yet the House that bears her name continues to reinterpret the style that made her legendary in ways that still manage to surprise. It would have been easy to coast on the most superficial, instantly recognisable elements of the brand’s history. Instead, what we found in Vivienne Westwood’s latest men’s designer collection genuinely took us aback.
It’s not just a matter of craftsmanship, of cut and construction, of fabrics and accessories. It’s more the feeling of walking in expecting “good” and finding something way sharper, more considered – and, in a sense, more inevitable when it comes from a British House like this.
Asymmetric cuts, bold reworkings of iconic garments and archetypes all come imbued with a spirit – a soul – that is unmistakably Vivienne Westwood. And that presence runs through each of the nearly 100 pieces that make up the collection.
Creativity doesn’t mean chaos
Since we’ve set out to dismantle a few clichés around the brand, we might as well start with the most stubborn: the supposed “anarchy” of Vivienne Westwood’s collections.
It’s a reading that feels both lazy and wildly off the mark when you look at the spirit (and the actual construction) of the pieces. Yes, a Vivienne Westwood jacket is never just a jacket. And yes, the brand is perfectly happy to push even the most codified pillars of menswear to their limits.
But, just like great chefs who can tear apart and rebuild traditional dishes because they know exactly how and why they’re doing it, Vivienne Westwood’s latest menswear shows the same level of control.
Oversized jackets? Certainly – but with a genuine sense of structure, not simply scaled-up proportions. Asymmetric cuts? Yes – but still capable of conveying a kind of organic, almost intuitive order.
Even the inevitable dialogue with history – see the kilts in the collection – doesn’t drag. And they don’t bore an audience that has already seen more than enough reinterpretations, many of them pushed out of marketing departments rather than born from any real creative urgency.
That simply isn’t the case here. The latest collection by the Vivienne Westwood House never gives off that now-familiar sense of overstatement that plagues so much of contemporary fashion.
Where the brand dares, it does so with intention – even when the result is something that genuinely startles the viewer. The outcome is a kind of creativity – to use a word that has been stretched thin – that never feels like a stunt for its own sake.
Against all the usual fetishes
Fashion is often seen – sometimes with a sliver of justification – as the kingdom of the fleeting. The kingdom where appearance gets above substance. The kingdom, too, of spending for status and for an inflated sense of self.
And yet the history of the great brands and the great designers is also the history of people and personalities who have managed to puncture that cliché.
We feel, without much fear of contradiction, that Vivienne Westwood belongs firmly in the league of the great and the enduring – and not because the public “owes” anything to someone who has written chunks of fashion history.
If anything, today’s audience, saturated with thousands of offers all jostling for the same segment (or claiming to), is less inclined than ever to be indulgent.
Vivienne Westwood’s latest menswear collection doesn’t trade on nostalgia, reverence or goodwill. It doesn’t ask for discounts. And yet it still walks away with something significant: real relevance, without the theatrics.
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