STORY: :: More than 200 items from designer Vivienne Westwood's

personal fashion archive are heading to auction for charity

:: June 13, 2024

:: Adrian Hume-Sayer, Christie's

"So it is Vivienne Westwood's personal wardrobe. So this is Westwood for Westwood, which is kind of incredible. I mean, she is a legendary designer, but these are the things that she chose to wear herself throughout the last 40 years of her life."

"It's very personal, very. These are the things you can see her on her bike, riding around London, press interviews, end of the catwalk. You know, just conducting her day-to-day life. But she also lived as she, as she spoke. And so unlike many people, she has, in her position, she wore things repeatedly. She had favorites. There are things here you can see where she's darned and that, in a normal sale, that would be a sort of negative. But here, it's amazing because it gives you an instant, you can see that those stitches are from the hand of Vivienne Westwood. I mean, it doesn't really get any better than that."

The items are being offered by Christie's in London for the two-part "Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection" auction, made up of a live sale on June 25 and an online auction running June 14-28.

Westwood, whose name was synonymous with 1970s punk rebellion, was one of British fashion's biggest names. Known for her activism, her T-shirts bore slogans against climate change, pollution as well as her support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Westwood died in December 2022, aged 81.

A selection of the lots will be on public display at Christie's London from Friday (June 14) until June 24.