Westwood gets the boot
An exhibition of British designer Vivienne Westwood's iconic footwear goes on show
Aspiring designers, fashion students and shoe lovers shouldn’t miss a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of Vivienne Westwood’s unique designs of the ultimate fetish object, the shoe.
The exhibition, which runs until September 6 at Central Embassy celebrates the ingenuity and creativity of the famous British fashion designer and marks the opening of the first Vivienne Westwood boutique in Thailand.
Following the success of its first showing in London, the unique collection, which encapsulates more 40 years of design, has travelled the world from Beirut to Moscow, across Asia and the US, to its current home at the ultra-modern mall.
The exhibition displays more than 60 of Westwood’s iconic shoe designs and traces the exceptional success of her career to date. Illustrating her defiance of the rules of wearability and convention, the exhibition is also evidence of her uncompromising quest for superb craftsmanship and attention to detail.
Alongside the carefully hand-selected shoes are accessories and looks from Westwood’s London archive collections.
Westwood’s designs are a result of considered and distinctive influences. In the early 70’s she designed the Seditionary boot, which referenced the punk ideal of Situationism, a movement of subversive ideas. 1973-74 brought the infamous “Goat chain boots” created for the “Sex” collection, which instantly became a collector’s item. The early ’80’s brought about the iconic Buffalo bag boot and its twin Sock boot, both produced in 1982.
In 1996, Dutch Delft pottery was the inspiration for her Toile Print boot, and British colonialism was reflected in the Sahara Plimsoll of 1999. Victorian dandyism influenced the 1996 Trompe l’Oeil boot and the 15.5-centimetre heel Mary Janes of Erotic Zones were a salute to S&M and fetishism. Her shoes have also gained a reputation and created memorable fashion moments, such as the tumbling of Naomi Campbell when wearing the Super Elevated Gillie on the catwalk in 1993 and the Rocking Horse which became an instant collectible when it appeared in 1986. Her Pirate boots, first seen in 1981, remain popular and in demand to the present day.
Today, Vivienne Westwood’s shoes are celebrated the world over for leading the way in design, creativity and style and have become famous British icons in their own right.
