Vivienne Westwood jewellery exhibit coming to Te Papa
Friday, 13 September 2024
A major retrospective exhibition featuring spectacular jewellery and garments of the late pioneering British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood will be shown at Te Papa in Wellington this summer.
Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery opens in December and dives into the extensive history of jewellery design and creation by the eponymous Vivienne Westwood fashion house. Audiences will be able to get up close with more than 550 pieces of jewellery and 15 ensembles from the house, spanning four decades. It’s the first time many of the archive pieces have been displayed as a collection.
Westwood, a self-taught designer with no formal fashion training, died in 2022 but is globally credited for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream with bold, rebellious and subversive designs. She would go on to achieve worldwide celebrity after first opening a boutique with her then-partner Malcolm McLaren in London in 1971 that outfitted bands.
Her provocative, imaginative, nonconformist designs often referenced history, carried sociopolitical messages and weaved classic tailoring with the hard-edged. They came to define the punk aesthetic. Westwood once said she viewed punk as a way of seeing if one “could put a spoke in the system”.
Courtney Johnston, Te Papa’s chief executive, said Westwood was a disruptor, activist and one of the most influential designers of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was an honour for the museum to debut the touring exhibition, which is curated by the house of Vivienne Westwood and produced by Nomad Exhibitions.
For the exhibit, a series of rooms will be transformed into distinct decades of design from the 1980s to present day, traversing Westwood’s career from her punk origins through to influences of DIY, parure, fantasy and her exploration of different cultures.
Garments will be paired with jewellery in eclectic mixes and be surrounded by wall prints, sounds, images and videos of the house’s runway looks and past collections. Running alongside the exhibition, Te Papa plans to host a programme of events spanning jewellery, fashion, feminism, sustainability and music.
Jewellery has always been a core part of the Westwood look and brand, with the designer having taken one term of a silversmith and jewellery course at the University of Westminster, and later infamously saying, “I didn't know how a working class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world”.
She sold handmade jewellery at London’s Portobello Road Market in the 1970s and later used costume jewellery as statement pieces within her runway collections.
Claire Regnault, Te Papa’s senior curator of New Zealand histories and cultures, who is working on the exhibit, said accessories often were overlooked but Westwood used them playfully to create a narrative in her designs; from earring and necklace sets to tiaras, charm bracelets and her signature orb.
Regnault was most looking forward to unboxing a brown ball gown, a hand painted sea creature dress, and a selection of Westwood’s corsets.
She said the exhibit would cover the designer’s use of unconventional and inventive, colourful materials and her concern for the environment; her use of jewellery to frame the face and as a storytelling aspect, including to reference surrealism and fairy tales; and her challenging of jewellery stereotypes.
Regnault described Westwood’s jewellery as unexpected, referential and inviting a viewer to take a second look. “She is an inspiring figure, and I think her personality will come through really strong in the exhibition. … In New Zealand you often get to see the odd garment in a vintage store ‒ so for us this is a great opportunity to revel in all things Westwood.”
Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery runs December 14 to April 27, 2025. Tickets on sale November 4 at: tepapa.nz/westwood