Saturday’s Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood show marked the second under his own name and — although its one that has been entwined with the Vivienne Westwood story much longer than, say, Harris Tweed ever was or even punk ever was — there’s still a sense of getting to know the Tyrol-born designer.
“With my previous collection, I kept it a bit autobiographical,” he explained ahead of the show at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo. “It sounds a bit pathetic but it’s what it is. It’s very personal to me.”
What we had this time then, was a collection dedicated to the women in his life: the incendiary wit of Vivienne to whom he’s been married since 1993, of course, but also those of his beloved Italy and surrounding Mediterranean, where the couple keep a design studio. There were Georgette skirts (for both men and women), and open-front shirts paying homage to the laid back sensuality of the coastline. Even the Boucher-decorated invites featured the text “Rescue 112,” a nod to the despair he feels towards the ongoing political and human crises facing the continent (112 being the European emergency number).
“I feel European and I love everything around this big sea,” he said. “I travel quite a bit and if you’re in Greece or in Italy or in Spain or France, there’s something similar. Suddenly you are in front of this fantastic blue and time changes and your attitude to life changes and, of course, the way you look changes. It’s a leaning back and letting the time pass by.”
Credits
Photography Paolo Colaiocco