Vivienne Westwood
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Pirate
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AW
1981
The visual record is still being traced. It will appear here once found.
About this collection
Pirate Autumn/Winter 1981–82 was presented at Pillar Hall, Olympia, London on 31 March 1981 as Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s first formal catwalk collection. The clothes had already begun appearing at World’s End, but the Olympia show established a seasonal runway sequence built around historical cut, volume and a new post-punk visual language.
The collection replaced the compressed aggression of Seditionaries with loose shirts, wrapped cloth, broad trousers and romantic references to piracy and eighteenth-century dress. Its importance lies in the move from shop-led product into a sustained fashion collection practice and in the historical construction methods that would remain central to Westwood’s work.
