Fashion icon Vivienne Westwood’s personal wardrobe is being auctioned

In June, Christie’s London will present a live and online auction of more than 200 lots from the personal wardrobe of British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

Born in Cheshire in 1941, Westwood made her mark on the fashion world as a key figure in punk design. With designer and impresario Malcolm McLaren, whom she married in 1967, Westwood ran a fashion boutique on London’s Kings Road, which ran under various names from Let it Rock to Seditionaries (it continues to operate today as Worlds End). Most notably, members of the Sex Pistols, the punk band McLaren founded and led from 1975, wore several of Westwood’s sharp designs both on and off stage.

In the 1980s, Westwood continued to delve into subcultures – from pirates to witches – in collections that merged traditional forms with advanced techniques. For her efforts, she was awarded an OBE in 1992 and a DBE in 2006. By the time of her death in 2022, Dame Westwood was one of Britain’s best-known designers, celebrated for her provocative and iconoclastic looks.

The 200 accessories, jewelry and outfits from Westwood’s wardrobe were selected for auction by Westwood’s third husband and her brand’s creative director, Andreas Kronthaler, to whom she was married for 29 years.

The outfits in the auction span four decades, with the earliest look dating from autumn/winter 1983-84, just two years after Westwood’s first catwalk show. The two-piece ensemble comes from Westwood’s “Witches” collection, inspired by witchcraft and the graphic designs of Keith Haring, who collaborated with Westwood and McLaren on the iconic collection.

Other highlights coming to auction include a corset dress from Westwood’s ‘Dressed to Scale’ collection autumn/winter 1998/99, and an outfit from the ‘Propaganda’ collection autumn/winter 2005/06, which is considered a of the designer’s most openly political periods.

“Vivienne Westwood’s sense of activism, art and style is embedded in every piece she created,” Adrian Hume Sayer, Christie’s director of private and iconic collections, said in a statement. “The pre-sale exhibition and auctions at Christie’s will celebrate her extraordinary vision with a selection of looks that mark important moments not only in her career, but also in her personal life.”

Profits from the sale will go to various charities, including international human rights organization Amnesty International and the Vivienne Foundation, founded by Westwood in 2019 to confront climate change and protest capitalism.

The auction also features the Foundation’s project entitled The Big Picture – Vivienne’s Playing Cards, intended to honor Westwood’s legacy as an activist and benefit Greenpeace. Towards the end of her life, Westwood signed 100 sheets of etching paper, hoping that 10 works of art with her activist messages would be printed on these cards. Christie’s London is offering these limited edition playing cards for sale in 10 luxury wallets. The first will be available on June 25, with an estimate of £30,000 – £50,000 ($37,000 – $62,000).

“For Vivienne, activism was her life. She didn’t compartmentalize it. Fashion here, campaign there. In fact, she always said that everything is connected. Fashion. Art. Education. Activism. And she managed to blend it all together in extraordinary ways. Vivienne left us the playing cards, an important work of art, allowing her ideas to live on in all of us,” said John Sauven, former Executive Director of Greenpeace UK.

The auction will be split into two parts: a live sale on June 25 and an online auction from June 14 to 28. Pieces from Westwood’s wardrobe will also be on display as part of a free exhibition, “Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection,” held at Christie’s Kings Street headquarters from 14 to 24 June.

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