Vivienne Westwood: British designer’s clothes and jewels are heading to auction

Staff Writers

Reuters

2 Min Read14 Jun, 2024

Dresses and other items from Vivienne Westwood's personal collection are going up for auction. (AP PHOTO) Credit: AAP

Dresses, suits, shoes and jewellery from the personal collection of late British designer Vivienne Westwood will go under the hammer for charity.

More than 200 lots are being offered by auction house Christie’s in London for the two-part “Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection” auction, made up of a live sale on June 25 and an online auction running from June 14-28.

Westwood, one of British fashion’s biggest names, died in December 2022, aged 81.

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Her collaborator and widower Andreas Kronthaler has selected looks spanning some 40 years for the auction, with the earliest from Westwood’s Autumn-Winter 1983-1984 collection.

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has died, aged 81 — Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood died, in 2022, aged 81 Credit: Vivienne Westwood/Twitter

“It’s very personal ... These are the things you can see her on her bike, riding around London, press interviews, end of the catwalk ... just conducting her day-to-day life.

“But she also lived ... as she spoke. And so unlike many people ... in her position she wore things repeatedly. She had favourites.”

Westwood, whose name was synonymous with 1970s punk rebellion, was also known for her activism.

Her t-shirts bore slogans against fossil fuel-driven climate change and pollution, as well as her support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

FILE - Models applaud as British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood salutes the public after the presentation of her Spring/Summer 2006 collection in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005. Westwood, an influential fashion maverick who played a key role in the punk movement, died Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, at 81. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File) — Westwood was a fashion maverick who played a key role in the punk movement. Credit: Michel Euler/AP

In addition to clothes and accessories, a set of enlarged prints of a pack of playing cards Westwood designed in 2017 - focusing on issues such as climate change and inequality - are also being offered for sale for an estimate of STG30,000 - STG50,000 ($A58,000 - $A96,000).

Proceeds from the auction will go towards causes and charities Westwood supported - her own Vivienne Foundation, Greenpeace, Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontieres, Christie’s said.