For spring 2027, the Vivienne Westwood design team continued its ongoing dialogue with the house archives, finding playful and expansive new ways to interpret its standards. The starting point was Vive La Bagatelle, Westwood’s flirty spring 1997 collection and the prettily tied ribbon being flirtatiously undone that was central to it. Indulging in that push and pull between propriety and provocation, the team drew on central Westwoodisms: the fetishization of Englishness, the intimacy of the boudoir, and the titillating appeal of clothes that refuse to behave themselves.
There was plenty to recognize here in the familiar sweep of a Sunday dress and the off-kilter construction of ‘drunken’ tailoring, interwoven with some thrilling and ambitious developments. The new Mona corset, inspired by the house’s original 17th-century-style corset, introduced reworked side panels that pulled in the waist even further, with softer boning making for a surprisingly comfortable fit. The label has always understood the art of body-contouring, but this season found more subversive ways to cinch, twist, and contain the figure. Ruched and knotted skirts in denim and knit clung and released in unexpected places, leaving the wearer to decide how to indulge.
The newly developed Chi Chi dress was a standout, a dramatic black taffeta gown with a sculptural bodice and arpeggiating skirt that brought together echoes of the archival Bird of Paradise silhouette and the irreverence of the Wake Up, Cave Girl! collection. Black provided a strong undercurrent amid the plaids in off-kilter colors, appearing across cady, crepe jersey, and eveningwear inspired by John Singer Sargent’s Madame X.
Even more fun was to be had with the prints. Ripe grapes, revisited from spring 1997, sprawled across a drunken shirt, with its deliberately distorted construction giving the impression of movement even when standing still. Magnolia blossoms appeared on voluminous skirts and outerwear, and François Boucher’s Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan brought the familiar strain of rococo to a casual jersey tee. There were micro-ginghams and broken pinstripes, too—a particularly Westwoodian exercise in articulating respectable conventions of English dressing with a bit of rebel spirit.
Tailoring was deviously compelling. Waistcoat jackets, a popular silhouette in the 2000s, came paired with the louche and architecturally draped dovetail trousers. Elsewhere, double-breasted jackets were paired with Pirate buckle back trousers, and relaxed Wreck jackets featured low-slung pockets. One killer jacket was cinched with belts low on the waist and high on the shoulders, a sartorial bondage-y badinage. Romance abounded with the traditional Nottinghamshire-made Cluny lace—a now rarified artistic practice—as well as with fine, fluid, sparkle-dashed knitwear and shorter iterations of the Sunday dress.
Accessories continued the archival conversation: the stacked Clomper sole made a return, as did the anatomical-toe as slingbacks. This year marks 15 years of the house’s Made in Kenya partnership with the Ethical Fashion Initiative and Nairobi-based social enterprise Artisan Fashion, which supports local craftsmanship and artisan communities. Among the accessories were exquisite hand-beaded and woven bags from Kenyan artisans.
The breadth of references is always a delight, but this they were especially dexterously rearranged and reimagined. The late, great Dame’s design vocabulary has all the more to give when stretched, sliced, and plied with some spirits.