Vivienne Westwood's Roadie Chic
By Melanie Rickey
Photos by Gruber-FWD
PARIS, Oct 11, 2002/ FWD/ --- Vivienne Westwood, the 60-year-old grande dame of British
fashion, went back to where she started with this collection: the street.
Or to be more precise: the dress codes of theatrical girls, who perform their music or set
pieces on the street.
To push the message home, the runway was a badly maintained gravel pathway, cordoned off with
plastic taping to suggest it was closed for resurfacing.
With their purposefully "broken" high-heeled shoes the models indeed had quite a job making
their way up and back in one piece.
Even though the show was way too long, Westwood was creatively on-target.
Her silhouette was loose and voluminous, fabrics were either body hugging rib knits and
jerseys, or very loose striped linens, cottons and silks in muted shades of blue, mushroom
or gold.
The key look of the collection was egg-shaped skirts with high paper bag waistbands and
deep pockets at the hip, and loose tailored jackets with puffed up or oversized shirts.
Many of the clothes seemed to be two-in-one garments. A shredded shirt/jacket looked like
the result of a road accident.
Jersey body forming dresses were cut to follow feminine contours, bomber jackets had extra
long rib panels that served as half skirts.
Highlights included sporty corset/t-shirts, and the knitted lurex matching sets of knee high
socks, big knickers and camisoles.
The accessories were fun and silly - most of the models had Recorders or great bunches of
keys strung around their necks, and Keith Haring motifs were turned into wooden gee-gaws to
hang on a belt.
Westwood bounced out at the end of the show and danced down the runway sporting a new even
more spectacular than usual hairdo - a Tina Turner-meets-Fraggle-Rock bright orange shag.
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