The world-premiere exhibition Westwood | Kawakubo has opened its doors at Melbourne’s NGV and it’s sensational.
Here’s a sneak peek of some of the gorgeous galleries of gowns from the dynamic powerhouse designers who individually brought a rule-breaking radicalism to fashion design that subverted the status quo.
Installation view of Vivienne Westwood Lilly From the Valley Dress, Wake Up Cave Girl collection autumn- winter, 2007-2008 inside Westwood | Kawakubo on display from 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026, at NGV International, Melbourne. Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood Heritage. Photography Sean Fennessy (this and main image)
The summer blockbuster exhibition pairs two global icons – and iconoclasts – of the fashion world for the first time, British designer Vivienne Westwood (1941 – 2022) and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) of Comme des Garçons. Born a year apart in different countries and cultural contexts.
Exhibition overview video.
Through a showstopping display of nearly 150 innovative and ground-breaking designs, Westwood | Kawakubo explores the convergences and divergences between these two self-taught rebels of the fashion world. 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 40 outstanding works recently gifted to the NGV by Comme des Garçons especially for this exhibition.
Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo – garments by Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo. Photography Sean Fennessy
Presented thematically, Westwood | Kawakubo charts the defining collections and concerns of their practices – from the mid-1970s to the present day – inviting audiences to consider the multiple ways that Westwood and Kawakubo have each rewritten fashion over the course of their careers. Alongside fashion, the exhibition also features archival materials, photography and runway footage, offering audiences a deep insight into the minds and creative processes of these two legends of contemporary fashion.
Vivienne Westwood jacket, shirt, skirt, kilt, sporran, leggings hat and shoes, 1993, Anglomania collection, autumn-winter, 1993-1994. Vivienne Westwood Kilt, 1993, Anglomania collection, autumn-winter, 1993–1994. Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood Heritage. Photography Sean Fennessy
The exhibition explores Westwood and Kawakubo’s practices across five themes. Punk and Provocation, Rupture, Reinvention, The Body: Freedom and Restraint and The Power of Clothes.
Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo – garments by Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo. Photography Sean Fennessy
Westwood | Kawakubo will be on display from 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. Entry fees apply. Tickets and information are available here.
