Vintage Multicolor Vivienne Westwood Fall/Winter 1994 Plaid Blazer Size US 12
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Style:Modern (In the Style Of)
- Period:
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Pre-owned. Very good. Minor wear. Slight pilling throughout.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU147220953152
Vivienne Westwood
For someone who regularly swatted away the industry that made her, audacious British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood certainly knew her way around a garment. And she knew how to provoke. “I don’t follow fashion,” Westwood once told the New York Times. “I’ve never been interested in it.” Collectors are certainly interested in her work, and vintage Vivienne Westwood dresses, handbags, lingerie and jackets have become very desirable over the years.
Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in a village in Derbyshire, in central England, but moved to London as a teen. In the early 1960s, she began to make her own necklaces and other jewelry and met an artist, activist and entrepreneur named Malcolm McLaren. They became involved romantically and she made clothes for him in the style of the Teddy Boys — the city’s music-crazed, occasionally violent teenagers at the time who wore high-waisted trousers and tailored velvet blazers that drew on Edwardian-era fashions.
Westwood and McLaren opened a vintage shop on King’s Road in London in 1971. The flared denim and peasant blouses of the 1960s, then still popular with the “peace and love” set, didn’t hold any weight for Westwood. Instead, she was interested in provocative, edgy apparel. She repaired used clothing and endeavored to create bold new designs from scratch.
Together Westwood and McLaren sold older rock-and-roll records, customized T-shirts with antiestablishment slogans, biker jackets and snug trousers inspired by the Marlon Brando film The Wild One as well as bondage fetish wear. The shop, once called Let It Rock and then Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die before Sex became a more appropriate moniker, evolved into a youth mecca. The DIY garments — zippered tops, burnt tees emblazoned with anarchist messages — flew off the shelves. More notably, it brought punk to the masses.
Westwood was soon dressing the Sex Pistols, a band that McLaren managed, all the while bridging the gap between music and fashion in a manner that has reverberated throughout the industry for decades.
In 1981, the couple’s first fashion show marked the debut of their Pirate collection — a swashbuckler-themed line that sprang from Westwood’s research into Indigenous Americans and the “power garments” of the Louis XIV era. The collection’s ample proportions and cutting-edge tailoring countered punk’s geometry and tight latex fits as well as what rocker Adam Ant called the “Puritanism” that plagued England at the time. The Pirate collection’s enduring influence on the world of fashion as well as the theatrical work of designers such as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen is undeniable.
For the colorful corsets of her 1990 Portrait collection, Westwood drew on 18th-century oil paintings — her models donned the pearl necklaces that have become a social media star and a favorite of influencers and fashion lovers all over the world. For a jacket-and-shorts suit from her Fall/Winter 1996–97 Storm in a Teacup line, the designer used the extreme asymmetry of a tartan mash-up to confront, according to Westwood, “the horror of uniformity and minimalism.”
The self-taught Westwood enjoyed a rapid ascent in fashion, with British society embracing her looks and Vogue immortalizing them in its glossy pages. She garnered accolades for introducing corsets to the runway and dressed Kate Moss and Helena Bonham Carter. And an original Vivienne Westwood wedding dress is featured in 2008’s Sex and the City film.
The fires of political and environmental activism burned brightly for Westwood: She was a Greenpeace ambassador, having designed the organization’s official “Save the Arctic” logo; her clothing brand is committed to using recycled canvas and other eco-friendly materials in the production process; and in 2020, she protested the extradition of Julian Assange by suspending herself in a bird cage outside London’s Old Bailey court. But she will always be the grande dame of British design.
Find an extraordinary range of vintage Vivienne Westwood shirts, shoes, gowns and other items today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 2 days of delivery.
- Vintage Blue Courreges Deep V-Neck Jacket Size US LBy CourrègesLocated in New York, NYVintage blue deep V-neck jacket by Courreges. Pleated shoulders. Front closures. 42" bust, 20" shoulder width, 21" length.Category
Late 20th Century Blazers
- Vintage Black Chanel Spring/Summer 2001 Wool Jacket Size FR 48By ChanelLocated in New York, NYVintage black wool jacket by Chanel. From the Spring/Summer 2001 Collection. Pointed collar. Four pockets. Concealed front closure. 36" bust, 15.5" shoulder width, 23" sleeve length,...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Jackets
- Vintage Beige Chanel Spring/Summer 2001 Linen Blazer Size FR 34By ChanelLocated in New York, NYVintage beige linen blazer by Chanel. From the Spring/Summer 2001 Collection. Notched lapel. Dual hip pockets. Single button closure at front. 40" bust, 19" shoulder width, 20.5" sle...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Blazers
- Black & Red Chanel Fall/Winter 2006 Metallic Reversible Cape Size O/SBy ChanelLocated in New York, NYBlack and red metallic tweed reversible cape by Chanel. From the Fall/Winter 2006 Collection. Crew neck. Dual pockets. Front button closures 52" bust, 15" shoulder width, 35" length.Category
21st Century and Contemporary Capes
- Vintage Black Chanel Boutique Blazer Size US LBy ChanelLocated in New York, NYVintage black double-breasted blazer by Chanel Boutique. Circa 1996. Notched lapel. Three pockets. CC button closures at front. 38" bust, 15" shoulder width, 22.75" sleeve length, 28...Category
Late 20th Century French Blazers
- Black Barbour Lined Belted Jacket Size US 6By BarbourLocated in New York, NYBlack lined belted jacket by Barbour. Stand collar. Three pockets. Snap front closures. 36" bust, 15.5" shoulder width, 23.75" sleeve length, 23.5" length.Category
21st Century and Contemporary European Jackets
- Vintage Tisse a Paris for LILLI ANN Fur Mohair MINK Swing Coat CAMEL BrownBy Lilli AnnLocated in Asheville, NCLilli Ann, Tisse a Paris, One Button Hidden Top Closure, Pink Satin Lining, Two Satin Lined Pockets, Mink Fur Collar, Heavy Weight, 3/4 Sleeve, Beautiful Coat Measurements Laying Fl...Category
Mid-20th Century Jackets
- VERONICA BEARD Colorblock Plaid Jacket USA w/ Removable Leather Dickey Zip Up 10Located in Asheville, NCVeronica Beard, Made in USA, Polyester/Viscose/Elastane, Green, Navy, Colorblock Plaid, Hook and Eye Closure on Jacket, Two Front Pockets (One with Flap), Zipper on Back, Size 10, Re...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Jackets
- Rare Schiaparelli Black Quilted Faille Evening Cape, 1951By House of SchiaparelliLocated in New York, NYRare Schiaparelli Haute Couture Mandarin Black Quilted Faille Cape, 1951 Amazingly chic and modern quilted silk faille Haute Couture cape by Elsa Schiaparelli from the 1950's. M...Category
Early 20th Century French Art Deco Capes
- Schiaparelli Haute Couture Black Changeant Faille Evening JacketBy Elsa SchiaparelliLocated in New York, NYSchiaparelli Haute Couture Changeant Faille Jacket, 1938-39. "France gave me the inspiration: America gave me the approval" Elsa Schiapa...Category
1940s French Jackets
- Extraordinary Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture Evening JacketBy Elsa SchiaparelliLocated in New York, NY"In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous" Elsa Schiaparelli,1930's. "Life has changed so much, A Schiaparelli was never made for the streets." Karl Lagerfeld, 1970's. 2 quotes,2 designers, 4 decades apart. 4 decades later. Although these quotes are highly debatable, especially in the context of today's high-low designer collabs and pop up retailing, iconic fashion endures. Whether now relegated to a museum exhibition, a collector's acid free box or a celebrity one nighter, these fashion artifacts from the french Haute Couture of the 1930's echo a time, pace and culture unrecognizable to most people today. Schiaparelli changed the definition of what it meant to be a designer at an important time in the evolution of the Haute Couture. Rather than simply making beautifully elegant garments (which she also did), she focused on the concepts behind the pieces. For her fashion was a fluid medium and she effortlessly blended fashion, politics and the fine arts. She was one of the most innovative and rebellious designers of the period working against what she considered the stale fashion currents of the day. She was elegant yet untrained. As a protege of Poiret, she gained entry into the world of Parisian fashion. While her rival Chanel was essentially uneducated and a “primitive” in the artistic circles in which she socialized, Schiaparelli’s impeccable social credentials as the daughter of an old and distinguished Roman family gave her a relatively easy entree into Paris society. She was a subversive, a punk, a desecrator, a collaborator, an innovator as well as the ultimate insider whose plans on design domination and creating "la zone rose" for the modern world were cut short by the advent of WWII. She was at the height of her influence and power showing 4 iconic collections in the last years of the decade. Fascinating to consider what the House of Schiaparelli could have brought forth in the following decades had the world not been swept away in turmoil at that moment. In the context of her short prewar career, few remaining masterworks have survived. The rare "moment" she created in the 30's lives on within each art piece, safelocked away within each stitch and sequin. Each design retains her spirit and legacy as a free thinking, modernist rebel who used the avantegarde as her platform in the most creative period of fashion design in the 20th Century. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare and Important Elsa Schiaparelli Haute Couture...Category
1930s French Jackets
- RICK OWENS Avant Garde Distressed Leather Biker JacketBy Rick OwensLocated in Berlin, BEClassic avant-garde biker jacket from Rick Owens. A true Rick Owens staple. This avant-garde jacket is made from a soft distressed lamb leather and features a concealed front zip closure, classic Rick Owens long sleeves...Category
2010s Italian Jackets