The personal wardrobe of the late fashion icon, Vivienne Westwood, will go under the hammer at Christie’s this summer, featuring garments inspired by artists such as Keith Haring. The sale is led by Westwood’s husband and design partner, Andreas Kronthaler; part of the sale proceeds will go towards Westwood’s own charity (The Vivienne Foundation), Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières.
Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection will be presented at two auctions: a live sale taking place in London on 25 June and an online auction (14-28 June). More than 200 lots, including jewellery and accessories, have been consigned, spanning four decades. The items will go on view at Christie’s headquarters in London in a free exhibition (14-24 June).
“One of the earliest collections by Westwood, Witches, autumn/winter 1983/84, was inspired in part by witchcraft and Keith Haring’s graphic code of magic symbols,” a Christie’s statement says. Writing in the Financial Times, Alexander Fury says: “Institutions worldwide will doubtless be fighting over items from landmark collections such as Harris Tweed (autumn/winter 1987), in which Westwood reintroduced the corset, and On Liberty (autumn/winter 1994), in which she reinvented the bustle.”
As part of a posthumously-launched project by Westwood to raise funds for the environmental charity Greenpeace, the designer created a series of prints in ten portfolios based on playing cards she designed. The first set of prints, presented in a linen-covered hand-embroidered box, will be offered at auction as part of the live sale (The Big Picture–Vivienne’s Playing Cards, est £30,000-£50,000).
Westwood died December 2022. In the obituary for The Art Newspaper, Jane Mulvagh wrote of Westwood's artistic inspirations: “[She] spun Kolman Helmschmid’s early 16th-century suit of armour into a Harris tweed jacket padded with armoured panels, printed Boucher’s putti from Venus and Vulcan (1754) across corsets and raincoats, and used Keith Haring’s New York subway graffiti of 1980-81 on cotton streetwear”.
Mulvagh also said: “It is little wonder that crowds snake around the block to see her museum retrospectives, including the show put on at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, in 2004, before it toured the world. It is no wonder that her vintage pieces cost thousands of pounds.”
