London – Christie’s is honoured to announce the sale of the personal wardrobe of the revolutionary British fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood to raise funds for charitable causes she championed. Dame Vivienne Westwood is recognised globally as one of the most influential designers of modern times, establishing one of the world’s leading fashion brands. Andreas Kronthaler, Vivienne’s husband and Creative Director of Vivienne Westwood®, has selected iconic looks from Vivienne's wardrobe to be presented across two auctions: a live sale taking place in London on 25 June with an online auction taking place alongside from 14 to 28 June 2024.

Spanning four decades, more than 200 lots will be offered across the two sales, each of them representing a significant moment in Vivienne's life and career, with the earliest look dating from Autumn/Winter 1983/84. A free public exhibition showcasing Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection will take place at Christie’s headquarters on King Street, London from 14 to 24 June. The fashion, jewellery and accessories will be offered to benefit The Vivienne Foundation, Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières, alongside THE BIG PICTURE – Vivienne’s Playing Cards, a project by The Vivienne Foundation to raise funds for Greenpeace.

A genius born 1941 
Vivienne was a rebel 
An outsider who had a calling 
To be different 
To explode the system 
She was an original thinker 
Vivienne was our heroine

Andreas Kronthaler

The Vivienne Foundation added: “Vivienne was a style icon throughout her lifetime. Her deep interest in intellectual and political ideas informed her natural skill in fashion design, where she became one of the very few true originators. There will simply never be another Vivienne Westwood.”

Adrian Hume Sayer, Director Private & Iconic Collections, Christie’s, Head of Sale stated: “Vivienne Westwood’s sense of activism, art and style is embedded in each and every piece that she created. The pre-sale exhibition and auctions at Christie’s will celebrate her extraordinary vision with a selection of looks that mark significant moments not only in her career, but also in her personal life. This will be a unique opportunity for audiences to encounter both the public and the private world of the great Dame Vivienne Westwood and to raise funds for the causes in which she so ardently believed.” 

One of the earliest collections by Vivienne Westwood, Witches, Autumn/Winter 1983/84, was inspired in part by witchcraft and Keith Haring’s graphic code of magic symbols. The collection featured swirling silhouettes, enormous peaked-shoulders and layered knitwear (the earliest piece offered in The Personal Collection, a two-piece ensemble of navy-blue serge, illustrated above centre and far above left). This pioneering collection was presented in Paris to critical acclaim.

Vivienne Westwood played with scale to create a sense of displacement in her collections, in a technique akin to Surrealism and the ways in which a familiar scene is transmogrified. In Dressed to Scale, Autumn/Winter 1998/99, elements of a garment were blown up to become the decorative focus. These extremes referenced the fashions that were documented by the 18^th century satirist James Gillray and were intended to attract as well as provoke thought and debate (a corset gown of taupe silk taffeta illustrated above left and far above centre).

Perhaps more than any designer, Vivienne Westwood understood the power of communicating a message through an item of clothing. Propaganda, Autumn/Winter 2005/06, was Vivienne’s most overtly political show to date, referencing her punk days as well as an essay by Aldous Huxley, titled Propaganda in a Democratic Society (a dress with blue and white striped blouse and printed propaganda modesty panel and apron illustrated above right and far above right).