Vivienne Westwood’s Personal Collection of Clothing and Accessories Is Coming to Auction at Christie’s London

The idea for the sale started to take shape during Westwood’s life. “Towards the end, we talked about her clothes and whether they should be sold for a good cause,” says Andreas Kronthaler, whom she married in 1992 and with whom she went on to design many collections. A famously May to December affair, Kronthaler was 25 years younger, but the relationship never faltered. “Vivienne wanted to raise money for the charities and organizations she worked with.” The beneficiaries will be The Vivienne Foundation, Medecins sans frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), Amnesty International, and Greenpeace.

Westwood only ever dressed in her own designs, and naturally had them altered to fit. “This is her everyday wardrobe, and in better condition than you might expect,” says Hume-Sayer, adding that only a few items show signs of duress. “Andreas told me that occasionally he’d tell her to stop wearing something. And she was a great mender.” He points to an ice-blue Cinderella dress—one of her most iconic designs—that she particularly loved. “It would stretch at the seams just under the bosom and she would darn it. That’s become part of it now. That’s what makes this collection so special.”

The earliest pieces in the show date back to the Witches collection of 1983 and include a navy blue serge two-piece (Lot 2). The boxy jacket has lamb horn toggles, the pleated skirt an extraordinary extended tubular waistband in cream jersey. “It’s quite simply avant-garde,” says Hume-Sayer. “She didn’t follow anyone. She created the references.”

Lot 25, however, demonstrates her deep fascination with historical clothing and cutting. The low-cut linen jacket, silk camisole, and stunning green and red taffeta skirt are from the 1998 collection called Tied to the Mast, which evoked shipwrecks and the sea. For it she pillaged inspiration from the 17th and 18th centuries and the array balanced subtle ratios between bodice and sleeve and the mitred edges that allow stripes to turn corners with her modern-day maverick take on what fashion should be. Sadly her most famous outfit, the apparently naked dress with only a fig leaf to cover her modesty that she wore to London’s first Fashion Awards in 1989, has not survived.

Though Westwood eventually focussed rather more ferociously on activism than fashion, she did once say that “Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it’s a lovely generous thing to do for other people.” Something worth bearing in mind if one is thinking of bidding.

“Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection” goes on view at Christie’s London flagship June 14 ahead of the June 25 live sale, with a Part II online event taking place June 14 through 28.