Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo to Headline NGV’s Major Summer Fashion Exhibition
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has announced that its next major summer exhibition will celebrate the work of two groundbreaking designers: the late British icon Vivienne Westwood and Japanese avant-garde visionary Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons.
Titled Westwood | Kawakubo, the exhibition opens in December and follows the record-breaking success of Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition, which recently became the most visited art show in Australian history.
“We can only try to exceed those numbers, right?” joked Dani Whitfield, NGV’s curator of fashion and textiles.
She added:
“What you hope for is that people who may not know these designers come in, learn something, and walk away inspired.”
The show will feature more than 140 designs, with over 100 drawn from NGV’s collection, alongside works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Palais Galliera in Paris. The pieces will be accompanied by archival material, photographs, films, and runway footage.
Themes and Highlights
The exhibition is structured around five central themes:
- Punk and Provocation
- Rupture
- Reinvention
- The Body: Freedom and Restraint
- The Power of Clothes
It traces Westwood’s evolution from punk provocateur—designing for the likes of the Sex Pistols—to a fashion icon who subverted historical styles, and Kawakubo’s trajectory from minimalist rebellion to experimental conceptualism.
“They were born in different places but around the same time,” Whitfield said. “Each wanted to challenge and reshape fashion from within, while also critiquing it.”
“Ultimately, we’re thinking about what it means for a woman to design for other women.”
Fashion as Provocation and Empowerment
Vivienne Westwood, who rose to prominence in the 1970s with then-partner Malcolm McLaren, redefined punk fashion with ripped shirts, tartan, and safety pins, challenging traditional beauty norms and gender roles.
Later, she drew inspiration from historical garments like corsets and crinolines, reworking them to celebrate female sexuality and empower the wearer. One standout is her “mini-crini”, a fusion of crinoline structure and miniskirt silhouette inspired by Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka.
“She brought what was once hidden—undergarments—to the outer layer, turning them into symbols of strength,” Whitfield explained.
Rei Kawakubo, meanwhile, created radical, shapeless silhouettes in monochrome during the 1980s, turning away from the glamour of Paris fashion runways and challenging the male gaze.
“She stripped fashion down, offering something bold, black, asymmetrical—and deeply thoughtful,” Whitfield said.
“Her clothes weren’t about looking sexy, but about owning your identity.”
Kawakubo’s pieces, including designs from her upcoming collection, will appear in the show, giving audiences a rare view of her ongoing evolution as one of fashion’s most daring voices.
“The closer to the present, the more avant-garde she becomes,” Whitfield noted.
Why These Designers Belong in a Gallery
The NGV has embraced fashion in recent years, with blockbuster exhibitions like Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto (2021) and Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022). This upcoming show continues that trend, highlighting the artistic and cultural impact of Westwood and Kawakubo.
While it’s not the first time Australian galleries have spotlighted these designers—NGV’s Collecting Comme ran in 2019, and the National Gallery of Australia held a Westwood retrospective in 2004—this is the first time both will be featured together.
Whitfield says fashion belongs in museums because it reflects and challenges society just like other forms of art:
“It’s about understanding how these clothes were made, how they functioned, and what they meant in their cultural context.”
“Designers like Westwood and Kawakubo push boundaries. They play with form and meaning, they parody, they provoke—just like any great artist.”
She concluded:
“Fashion should empower. It should challenge. It should ask questions. It’s how we express who we are.”
