Modern codpieces and Sam Smith hit the catwalk at Vivienne Westwood
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At times during Andreas Kronthaler’s Vivienne Westwood Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday, it was difficult to know where to look.
On a stage in the middle of the catwalk space, members of Sons of Sissy, an experimental Austrian folk performance group, would be contorting themselves into mind-boggling poses and making ethereal sounds into a microphone while around them models stomped down the runway in outfits concocted from items ranging from modern codpieces to breastplate tabards, cycling shorts and wader boots.
The most noteworthy of the model line-up was non-binary British singer-songwriter Sam Smith, who made two appearances. Their first look consisted of a draped tartan knicker creation styled with a plaid cape, argyle socks, grey suede platform boots and a tam o’shanter with a long black tulle veil. A long shredded gown with matching hat worn for a second outing paid homage to the black costumes often seen in paintings by Renaissance artist Giovanni Battista Moroni, whose work inspired the collection.
Kronthaler, 58, was married to Westwood for 30 years until her death in 2022 and now continues her legacy as head of the fashion house she founded and made world-famous with her radical punk designs. He said that an exhibition of Moroni’s work in Milan “reminded me very much of the beginning of me working with Vivienne”.
The Renaissance elements collided with “some sports protection gear from a good friend”, Austrian-born Kronthaler explained. “We referenced the 1600s playing with codpieces, with slashing and piercing materials, pluderhosen, breeches and doublets.”
The show was closed by Kristen McMenamy, the 59-year-old American model known for her mermaid-like platinum hair. She teetered down the catwalk in a billowing white minidress which was open at the sides and worn with a knee-high boot version of Westwood’s signature Super Elevated Ghillie heels, mythologised by Naomi Campbell when she fell over while showcasing them on the catwalk in 1992.
Amid the avant-garde looks in Kronthaler’s collection were plenty of the exquisitely tailored dresses, jackets and coats which, beneath the theatrics, have always underpinned the Westwood label.
A black gown with padded hips and a narrow-corseted waist, a miniskirt sculpted like origami and a tartan coat with oversized lapels and extra long sleeves were among the pieces with the power to cut through the noise of even the most beguiling Austrian folk performers.
More from the show
