Vivienne Westwood’s
Music for Chameleons
PARIS, March 1, 2005 - On Saturday in the weekend that divided Milan from Paris,
flocks of models descended on the tiny Rue de Mail for a casting call at Vivienne
Westwood's local offices. As the world's most beautiful women stood in a drafty
hallway shivering, look book in hand, you had the impression that most of them
were probably wondering whether they would get their five minutes of fame on
the catwalk. Of course, the odds were stacked against them, because no matter
how talented or genetically perfect you may be, the fashion world is a fickle
place that can turn on you in a heartbeat.
But by the time the lights came up at the Vivienne Westwood show on Tuesday
morning, all of that uncertainty got swept away by the élan of the
moment, because fashion people are attracted to sparkle, power and glamour,
just like chameleons to Mozart.
When you talk about fashion, you can talk about clothes, or you can talk
about art, and in the case of Viv, art will do - each piece that hit the
lacquered ebony runway was intricately wrapped and layered, swirled in
a tapestry of textures and colors that oscillated like those magical lizards,
referencing, perhaps, her closest spiritual ally, Christian Lacroix. Both
designers draw inspiration from London of the 70s, a period in time when
dissent was à la mode, and
when the conception of love was somewhat freer - that counter-cultural whiff
brings so much hard core statement to their clothes. Whether in pleated skirts
falling over leotards, or in appendages fluttered from skirts, there was a contemporary
verve to everything. It was a reworking of a baroque ideal, and that pairing
of contrasting elements was even reflected in the soundtrack that morphed from
rock, to "Chansons d'amour", to 18th century counterpoint and back
again. Add in models sporting two dissimilar boots, and the sonic effect
begins to build. By the time a dress of wispy snow-white tulle or a folded
chiffon mocha-colored gown floated down the catwalk, the tonal spectrum was
complete.
Viv, who was drinking mineral water from a plastic cup backstage, said
of her own triumphant turn in the spotlight, "the music gets me going".
But Westwood's fusion of ideas comes from a variety of sources, from the
sublime to the profane, and her program notes were full of propaganda cutouts,
replete with slogans unprintable here. Also in the brochure, you would
find a petition to free Leonard Peltier, a Native American, who according
to notes, is falsely imprisoned though the FBI under the Freedom of Information
Act has released exonerating evidence. And then, you could turn to the
last page, where Viv's own thoughts on her hardcore diamond collection
were printed: "We
all want diamonds: a hard core power of light--I wanted things that are
human, very close and understood, hearts and piercing arrows - all's fair
in love and war."
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