Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo on display from 7 December 2025 to 19 April 2026, at NGV International, Melbourne. Photo: Sean Fennessy

It was 1974 and, on King’s Road in the London suburb of Chelsea, a young designer and her partner opened a boutique called SEX. The designer was Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022), her partner Malcolm McLaren, and SEX (later renamed Worlds End) quickly became synonymous with the iconic punk fashions we know today.

On the other side of the world, Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) had already launched her avant-garde fashion label, Comme des Garçons, and in 1975 would open her first flagship boutique in Tokyo.

Apart from working together on a limited collection in 2002, the designers didn’t cross paths often – but their extraordinary works and parallel careers are now being highlighted by a world-premiere fashion exhibition at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

“To us, there seemed a great affinity between Westwood and Kawakubo,” says Katie Somerville, senior curator of fashion and textiles at the NGV. “They share the same spirit of rebellion, their work champions creative and social freedom and protests limiting conventions of beauty, taste and gender, as well as garment form and function.”

Westwood | Kawakubo showcases 150 innovative designs from the pair, drawn from international museums – including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Palais Galliera – as well as Vivienne Westwood Heritage, private lenders and the NGV’s own extensive collection. Presented thematically, the exhibition encompasses the women’s careers from the 1970s to the present day and invites visitors to consider how each designer challenged and changed fashion conventions.

Mercedes-Benz Australia is proud to be the Principal Partner of Westwood | Kawakubo. We spoke with Katie and NGV curator of fashion and textiles Danielle Whitfield about five of their favourite moments from Westwood | Kawakubo.

1. Early 1980s Westwood

“In the first room we have 18 incredible rare and early works from the NGV collection spanning Westwood and McLaren’s six earliest fashion collections presented on the runways of London and Paris, including Pirate, Nostalgia of Mud, Punkature, Savage, Hypnos and Witches,” says Danielle.

This part of the NGV fashion exhibition presents Westwood’s interpretations of the aesthetics of London fashion movements like New Romantic and Buffalo. A yellow outfit, including a hat and sash, from the autumn/winter 1981–82 Pirate collection demonstrates the rebellion she showed from her earliest days. Other designers’ collections at the time were sharp and structured; Pirate featured trousers with saggy bottoms and layers of fabric.

2. The 18th-century room

Both the late Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo – who, at the age of 83, still produces collections every year – often used the past (moments in fashion history, tailoring traditions and decorative arts) as inspiration for their designs.

“This immersive room features nine iconic works by both Westwood and Kawakubo, all inspired by the fashion or art of the 18th century,” says Katie.

“This includes the sweeping ballgowns Westwood was renowned for and three strikingly original works from Kawakubo’s 18th-Century Punk collection, from autumn/winter 2016–17, gifted to the NGV by the artist.”

For this collection, Kawakubo took the ruffles, frills and panniers used in garments during that period and re-created them. “I was thinking there had to be women in the 18th century who wanted to live strongly,” she says. “So I designed what I imagined this type of woman would have worn and called it 18th-Century Punk.”

3. Smaller is Stronger

The exhibition features three impressive sculptural works acquired by the gallery from Kawakubo’s recent autumn/winter 2025–26 Smaller is Stronger collection. “[It’s] a collection that marked a return to her key concerns with tailoring codes, suiting and patternmaking,” says Danielle.

Many of the 20 pieces shown were created using pinstriped, checked and houndstooth fabrics more closely aligned to menswear but manipulated into curved, abstract, ‘feminine’ forms.

After the collection was shown at Paris Fashion Week, the designer shared the meaning behind its name: “Recently we feel that big business, big culture, global systems, world structures maybe are not so great after all. There is also strong value in small. Small can be mighty.”

4. Blood and Roses

For her spring/summer 2015 collection, Blood and Roses, Kawakubo used an all-red palette and rose motifs, with raw edges and visible seams, to reference violence and struggle.

“On one plinth in the exhibition, we are presenting seven complete looks from Kawakubo’s Blood and Roses collection alongside an enigmatic photograph by Paolo Roversi,” says Katie.

“The entire collection was executed in vibrant shades of vermillion red and references the rose’s historical associations with blood, wars, political conflict, religious strife and power struggles.”

5. Westwood disrupting tradition

Another section of the NGV fashion exhibition focuses on Westwood’s collections of the late 80s and early 90s: autumn/winter 1987’s Harris Tweed and autumn/winter 1993’s Anglomania.

“They demonstrate the defining role that her unique take on Britishness played in Westwood’s design language,” says Danielle. “It’s a playful mix of tradition, royalty, parody and transgression.”

Included in these collections are some of the designer’s best-known works, including Anglomania’s MacAndreas tartan gown, worn by Kate Moss on the runway, as well as world-renowned milliner Stephen Jones’ tweed ‘crown’, created for the Harris Tweed show, both of which are also on display at the NGV.

Westwood | Kawakubo will be showing at Melbourne’s NGV International until April 19, 2026.

Visit the NGV and discover Westwood | Kawakubo.