Ensemble
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ensemble
- Designer: Vivienne Westwood (British, 1941–2022)
- Designer: Malcolm McLaren (British, London 1946–2010 Switzerland)
- Date: spring/summer 1983
- Culture: British
- Medium: (a) cotton; (b) cotton; (c) cotton, leather, metal, (d, e) leather, metal
- Credit Line: Purchase, Gould Family Foundation Gift, in memory of Jo Copeland, 2018
- Object Number: 2018.455a–e
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
More Artwork
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Multiple artists/makers
1978
Multiple artists/makers
1976
Vivienne Westwood
Malcolm McLaren
1981
Vivienne Westwood
Malcolm McLaren
1982
Multiple artists/makers
1977
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