Medium: Brown satin, cotton, gray crochet knit, and brown suede

Date: 1982-1983

Country: England

Credit: Museum purchase

Vivienne Westwood is one of the most important designers to have emerged from London in the late 20th century. Her stylistic extremism was initially associated with the punk subculture, but by the 1980s she had moved on to explore new ideas, such as the clothing of the past and of other cultures. Her third solo collection, Buffalo (1982), also called Nostalgia de la Boue [Nostalgia of Mud], incorporated cross-cultural, “tribal” themes. The skirts, for example, were inspired by the clothing of Peruvian women. Westwood’s program notes also urged the reader to “Take your mother’s old brassiere and wear it undisguised over your school jumper [sweater].” The idea of underwear-as-outerwear would prove immensely influential.

Object Number: 2003.97.4