Celebrities including Jerry Hall, Sadie Frost and Kate Moss – who arrived with her reportedly estranged partner Jefferson Hack – flocked to the Victoria & Albert Museum on Tuesday night to honour one of Britain's greatest designers.
Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood was the guest of honour at the star-studded gala, which launched a new retrospective of the 63-year-old trendsetter's extensive body of work.
From punk to New Romantic through the reinvention of the corset, the exhibition showcases more than 30 years of Vivienne's fashion history. "I've fallen in love with these things over and over again," said the quirky, flame-haired designer as she kicked off the retrospective.
Exhibits include such iconic fashion memorabilia as Sex Pistols gear worn by Johnny Rotten in 1976 and a pair of outrageously tall blue platform shoes which famously tripped up supermodel Naomi Campbell on the catwalk in 1993.
The renowned rebel's cutting-edge sense of style has made her a UK institution in her own right. "Vivienne encapsulates a particular kind of Britishness," says exhibition curator Claire Wilcox, "combining fearless non-conformity with a sense of tradition."
The exhibition opens on April 1 and runs until July 11.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
