#melbourneposting

Ok so finally got back from the UniMelb x NGV westwood|kawakubo drop in conversations FROM THE COLLECTIONS OPENING CEREMONY. Going to go back I’m thinking Wednesday to see the actual exhibition but yes, that was very informative and enjoyable. Going to take this session by session:

So Making Westwood|Kawakubo or session 1 was basically just the background stuff of how the exhibition came together over 2 years, the ideas and the curatorship behind it. Very interesting stuff, apparently the ngv has been collecting for their archives since the 90s so it’s been a long time coming. + comme des garçon did loan them I think 40 pieces and they did buy around 2-3 pieces for their collection as well, which was amazing obviously. Really can’t wait to see the different themes, especially ‘The Body’ because I do intend for rei kawakubo to be one of the artists I model/take inspiration for my creative practice in my art unit in 2026 and I’m really interested in looking at silhouettes and the broader engagement of that with the feminist movement, but that’s getting off topic.

Next up was Beyond Fashion - Rei Kawakubo. This was in conversation with comme’s coo Remo hallauer and I learned a lot about the behind the scenes stuff at comme and how kawakubo works alone and with other creatives. Apparently once she gives a designer their own label, they’ve got complete creative freedom, which is a lot of trust clearly. But on her own projects she is incredibly detail oriented and basically oversees everything. And she obviously not afraid to push boundaries, looking at the guerilla store and her oeuvre in general. There’s just a lot of specificity going on that makes her incredibly ahead oh her time which you can see in her original flagship store and even in comme perfumes. Stores hates them but kawakubo refuses to sacrifice artistic vision. And honestly? Good for her

And now for my favourite conversation, Two Fashion Icons - or the role of archival preservation! This was specifically about a dialogue between Westwood and kawakubo’s works and the space they existed in exploring similar themes on practically opposite sides of the world (Kawakubo in Japan and Westwood in London). This one really made it clear why Kawakubo and Westwood’s body of art works so well in conversation with each other and the ideas they both spin around and the way their artistic drives worked. And obviously there is the 2002 collaboration between comme des garçon and Westwood. But yeah I really enjoyed it and learning about how Westwood and kawakubo both kind of rose in the world of fashion and are kind of the reasons behind a lot of what we consider ‘normal’ wear in fashion nowadays (like bringing underwear like the corset into outerwear etc etc) was groundbreaking work they were doing in their time (or still are in kawakubo’s case)

And for the final conversation Rule Breaking Radicalism - Vivienne Westwood! I must admit, this session was one of the reasons I decided to spend my Sunday riding the metro into city instead of sleeping in, but I digress because it was worth it. The speaker for the session was a former Westwood employee who worked directly under/with her when Westwood was still just starting to set up her label and I learned a lot about those initial days at Westwood and what inspired her and how she worked and her muse (her son’s current girlfriend at the time apparently?) and about shoes. A lot about westwood’s shoes and the reason they were so high. But yes Westwood was incredibly interested in research and art and fashion history and how to incorporate that into her work to celebrate the female form. And her later years in climate activitism and how that influenced her work and her origin in punk and music with the sex pistols and her return to punk fashion in later years and how she existed on the outskirts of the fashion world until she was very suddenly accepted into it and how she played with those expectations in her own very Westwood way.