FRANCE: Vivienne Westwood fashion show in Paris attracts stars, includes falls and spills

Record ID: 816186

  • Title: FRANCE: Vivienne Westwood fashion show in Paris attracts stars, includes falls and spills
  • Date: 5th October 2006
  • Summary: MODEL WEARING PINK SKIRT, CARRYING WATERING CAN - POSING, THEN FALLING TWICE
  • Embargoed: 20th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA8QC4BYKZKF4NVOP028HJ5WM45
  • Story Text: The show presenting British designer Vivienne Westwood's spring/summer 2007 collection in Paris included a splash of showbiz as well as a couple of spills on the catwalk on Tuesday (October 3).
    Westwood is one of the most recognised and influential designers in the world. The flame-haired style icon titled her latest show "I Am Expensive," and criticised the gap between the lavish universe of fashion and a poverty-plagued world.
    "This part of the collection is called "I Am Expensive" and it's a very good title for a fashion designer," Westwood said, explaining she was inspired by women who depended on the world's poorest to look their best.
    Singer Janet Jackson viewed the designer's latest offerings from a front-row seat at the show, smiling at the more outrageous designs along with numerous buyers for Harrods, Galeries Lafayette and Japanese stores.
    Beginning modestly, the show presented knee-length and ankle-length gowns in neutral colours. But Westwood's signature style and boldness soon came shining through in graffiti prints and bold shades of pink, blue and green.
    Some of the models were as cheeky as the fashion priestess herself, parading out with watering cans or smoking cigarettes like 1980s Westwoodian muse Sarah Stockbridge.
    One ballroom gown's bottom looked like a satin diaper or sumo fighter string and was covered up with a long trail in the back.
    Westwood's career began in 1965, shortly after she met Malcolm Mclaren - future manager of the Sex Pistols - who introduced her to the underground scene of the late 1960s. He lectured her on the political power of art, liberating her creativity and Westwood soon became a subversive seamstress of pop.
    Her first designs hung in Let it Rock on London's King's Road in 1971.
    Five years later the boutique, now named Sex, sold ripped T-shirts, chains and assorted bondage gear and Westwood was dressing Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols.
    In the early 1980s, Westwood caught the mood of the New Romantics, an arts scene that eschewed gender distinctive dress and delighted in courtier costume and whirls of eyeliner.
    Westwood first showed in Paris in 1983 and never looked back.
    In the 1990s, her interest shifted into haute couture and she has made extensive use of British wools, tartans, tweeds and linens.
    She has twice been named British designer of the year and was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE).
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