Vivienne Westwood Exhibition

Year 12 students studying Fashion, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Art, Craft & Design, recently enjoyed a cultural visit to Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle, to experience the outstanding Vivienne Westwood Exhibition.

The museum is currently housing an iconic retrospective of Westwood’s work. A multi-gallery exhibition honouring one of fashion’s most provocative and imaginative British designers, Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022). Spanning the early 1980s to 2000s, the show charts Westwood’s extraordinary journey following the rebellious energy of punk from her early partnership with Malcolm McLaren (1946–2010), to her reinvention of historical dress and couture in the 1980s and ’90s.

Students had the opportunity to explore her elaborate designs alongside historical influences. From Armour to Harlequin to Greco-Roman attire, the desire to play and subvert societal norms was transparent in her work.

It was fantastic to see students engaging with the exhibition through drawing the pieces or weaving old scraps of fabric together creating something new and reimagined. Westwood has always been ecologically conscious. An advocate for circular (rather than fast) fashion, buying less and repurposing more. Wherever possible, garments were upcycled; her once pioneering values are even more vital today. Students really resonated with these ideas, many of them following similar ethics in their own work.

The day wasn’t complete until a showstopping performance by one of the earliest automated machines. The Silver Swan, from 1773, made up of over 2000 thousand moving parts, was a highlight of Bowes Museum. Its mystery and magic still astonishing audiences three hundred years later.

The trip was stimulating and informative, filled with memorable experiences, which will feed into A level investigations.