ball gowns and fashion pirates

the other week, i went to see the vivienne westwood exhibit at the deyoung... i found it sort of fascinating how she went from creating very avant-guard/hard to relate to clothes to these





(Victoria and Albert Museum
photograph by Niall McInerney)

which, also admittedly, are a little hard to relate to (for me - when ever would i wear something like this)... but her recent gowns are extraordinarily gorgeous in terms of their cut, color, drape and drama. and beauty - even if obviously super subjective - is just easier for me to understand than the ripped and chained and bondage items.

that being said, i think the exhibit was made - literally - by the multiple video screens showing her fashion shows. clearly an event, the shows showed off the clothes in vibrant settings - making some of the more grungy illfitting items of the early collections come alive. for example, the pirate collection - which frankly looked like dirty rags (i understand real historical pirates must have looked like this but a modern day fashion pirate? i think not) on their manequins - became beautiful and flowing and bright colored and full of energy.

if you go to the exhibit, be sure to watch all of the videos!