Portraits in disguise - NPG X45104
Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood
by Alastair Thain
1988
NPG x45104
This photograph was inspired by Westwood's 1988 Harris Tweed Royal Collection, which in turn was inspired by the theme of Royalty. The crown and sceptre bring to mind our own Queen Elizabeth II, but the stencilled Tudor roses evoke her namesake, Elizabeth I. The portrait barely fits the category of disguise, but is included for its overt reference to the world of fashion, and fashion's ability to re-invent styles of the past. Westwood (b.1941), co-founder with Malcolm McClaren of the Punk anarchic street fashion of the 1970s, represents the extreme in contemporary wear; post-modern in her approach, she has revived, for instance, eighteenth-century styles based on the paintings of the French artist Boucher, as well as the Victorian bustle.
Queen Elizabeth II
by Michael Leonard, c. 1985-1986
NPG 5861 (Detail)
Day dress in
wool crêpe by Hardy Amies, 1984
