Coming this December! A showstopping exhibition of more than 140 innovative and ground-breaking designs.
Westwood | Kawakubo explores the convergences and divergences between two self-taught rebels of the fashion world – Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. Born a year apart in different countries and cultural contexts, each brought a rule-breaking radicalism to fashion design that subverted the status quo.
Vivienne Westwood, London (fashion house), Vivienne Westwood (designer) Look 49, from the Anglomania collection, autumn–winter 1993–94. Le Cercle Républicain, Paris, March 1993. Photo © firstVIEW. Model: Kate Moss
The exhibition brings together important loans from international museums and private collections – including New York’s Metropolitan Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Palais Galliera, and the Vivienne Westwood archive – alongside 100+ outstanding works from the NGV Collection. The exhibition features more than 80 works that have recently entered the NGV Collection, including nearly 40 outstanding works recently gifted to the NGV by Comme des Garçons especially for this exhibition.
Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house), Rei Kawakubo (designer) Look 13, from the Uncertain Future collection, spring–summer 2025. Paris, 28 September. Image © Comme des Garçons. Model: Astrid Wagemakers
Presented thematically, the exhibition charts the defining collections and concerns of Westwood’s and Kawakubo’s practices – from the mid-1970s to the present day – inviting audiences to consider the multiple ways that they have each rewritten fashion conventions and codes over the course of their careers. These include: the impact and influence of the punk zeitgeist of the 1970s; the reinterpretation and reinvention of historical fashion references; their experimental design methodologies and the interrogation of gender and the idealised body. Alongside fashion, the exhibition also features archival materials, photography, film and runway footage, offering audiences a deep insight into the minds and creative processes of these two legends of contemporary fashion.
Exhibition highlights include Westwood’s iconic punk ensembles from the late 1970s, popularised by London bands such as The Sex Pistols and Siousie Sioux; a romantic MacAndreas tartan gown from Westwood’s Anglomania collection (autumn-winter 1993-94), famously worn by Kate Moss on the runway; and the original version of the corseted Wedding dress first shown in the Wake Up, Cave Girl Autumn-winter 2007-08 collection and later worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and The City: The Movie.
Sarah Jessica Parker wearing a Vivienne Westwood wedding gown on the set of Sex and the City: The Movie, New York City, 12 October. Photo © James Devaney / WireImage via Getty Images
In 2017, The Met in New York staged the exhibition, Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garçon: The Art of the In-Between, which opened with the pop culture phenomenon the Met Gala. The NGV exhibition features a version of the sculptural petal ensemble worn by Rihanna on the red carpet, as well as key designs from collections of those worn by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Tracee Ellis Ross. Also on display are dramatic abstract works spanning the recent decades which challenge the relationship between the body and clothing, including the playful Two Dimensions, spring-summer 2012, and the abstract forms of Invisible Clothes spring-summer 2017. Striking gingham sculptural forms from Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body collection (spring-summer 1997) also feature.
Comme des Garçons, Tokyo (fashion house), Rei Kawakubo (designer) Look 4, from the Blood and Roses collection, spring–summer Paris, 27 September 2014. Image © Comme des Garçons. Model: Andrea Hrncirova
Major showstopping moments in the exhibition include a dramatic, spotlit gallery highlighting how both designers have been influenced by fashion history; Westwood’s sweeping silk taffeta ball gowns inspired by 18th century court dress are presented alongside Kawakubo’s punk interpretations in pink vinyl and rich floral jacquard. A further dynamic display juxtaposes the bold, red tartans, English tweeds, grey plaids and navy pinstripes of Kawakubo with Westwood’s iconic tailoring. Sculptural, deconstructed, cinched and exaggerated silhouettes demonstrate their exacting approaches to cutting and textile traditions.
The exhibition design presents the two distinct voices of Westwood and Kawakubo as parallel yet fundamentally unique forces in fashion. The design uses symmetry as its cornerstone concept, presenting these designers like left and right hands; symmetrical but not identical.
NGV International, Melbourne 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026.
Main image: Vivienne Westwood, London (fashion house), Vivienne Westwood (designer) Outfits from the Portrait collection, autumn– winter 1990–91 (detail). 116 Pall Mall, London, March 1990. Photo © John van Hasselt / Sygma via Getty Images. Models: Susie Bick & Denice D. Lewis.
