Ensemble

Vivienne Westwood|Malcolm McLaren

spring/summer 1983 · (a) cotton; (b) cotton; (c) cotton, leather, metal, (d, e) leather, metal · Costume Institute

Vivienne Westwood's Punkature collection for spring/summer 1983 (a combination of "punk" and "couture") blends various motives of the everyday into a garment with a signature Westwood stamp. In a time of nuclear unrest, she experimented with ideas of being thrown back into a primordial age, or what one's wardrobe would look like after nuclear war: the result is a mix of dystopian colors (shades of orange and black) with domestic accents in a "dishcloth jacket." She assumed an anarchic, autodidact position in order to "start over" and use what was available, so she hand-dyed the canvas and used naïve patterns and loose seams for the jacket and combined it with draped baggy trousers upheld by rustic suspenders.

Artist

Vivienne Westwood|Malcolm McLaren

Date

spring/summer 1983

Medium

(a) cotton; (b) cotton; (c) cotton, leather, metal, (d, e) leather, metal

Culture

British

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Purchase, Gould Family Foundation Gift, in memory of Jo Copeland, 2018