National Gallery of Victoria set to succeed record-breaking Kusama exhibition with a fashion blockbuster

It’s a bright, sunny morning in Melbourne and I’m at The National Gallery of Victoria chatting with curators Katie Somerville and Danielle Whitfield for a lucky sneak peek into summer’s most anticipated exhibition. When the news broke in July that NGV were set to host a double-billed showcase of British designer Vivienne Westwood and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo, fashion enthusiasts across the globe took a collective gasp. It’s a world first. Naturally, I had to find out more . . . No gallery has ever dared to undertake the mighty task of combining the rebellious titans before, despite their poignant similarities and stark differences. But following the record-breaking success of last year’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition — the most attended ticketed art show in Australian history — if any gallery can rise to the occasion, it’s the NGV. Born only a year apart, both self-taught designers established a name for themselves during the 1970s while working in different countries and cultural contexts. Westwood was deeply British; she rebelled through historical references and used her platform for political commentary and critique. Kawakubo was deeply Japanese; she filtered her designs through an abstract, somewhat minimalist lens, avoiding references all together and taking a philosophical approach with existential ideas. Together they embody fashion’s most provocative paradox — rebellious and reflective, anarchic and philosophical. Katie reveals the NGV has been gradually building its holdings of pieces from both designers since the late nineties. “Westwood became a focus for us about five or six years ago, before we even knew we were doing the show,” she said. “(Westwood) was someone we really wanted to develop our representation of. And likewise, with Kawakubo, she’s such an important figure. We also have a very supportive donor who has regularly been gifting to us from his own (private) collection for more than a decade now.” The pair reveal they’re “nudging” 150 works for the exhibition, proportionally split between both designers. “In talking to Commes de Garcon and Rei (Kawakubo) about the forthcoming plans for this exhibition, she knocked our socks off with the announcement she was going to give us 43 incredible pieces,” Katie reveals. And while the Melbourne gallery is known for its summer fashion exhibitions, this marks the first time pairing two fashion designers and, notably, two women together. It’s a tale of two rebels — one who found rebellion in tartan and tweed, and the other who found freedom in asymmetry and absence. “With these pairing exhibitions, we’ve got the opportunity to look at these two really important figures in depth and across time at how they connect or disconnect over ideas. But rather than looking at the exhibition as a chronological exploration of their work, we are addressing it thematically,” Katie reveals. Looking at the exhibition map, it’s clear this will be quite a journey through its themes — Punk & Provocation, Rupture, Reinvention, The Body, and The Power of Clothes. “The key thesis of the exhibition is that these two women are independent practitioners, and they have always used fashion as a way to speak about the conditions of women in society — whether that’s about women’s roles or social and aesthetic freedoms,” Danielle adds. “They’ve always done so with this kind of underlying radicalism, which is to change the way that we think about dress.” Take Westwood’s Erotic Zones spring-summer 1995 collection for example: “She’s not shying away from the erotic and the erogenous zones,” says Katie. “(The collection) is a lot to do with bosoms, bottoms, hip lines and an ownership of the power of a woman’s sexuality in a much more explicit, different way to perhaps when it’s someone other than a woman, does the designing.” Kawakubo, on the other hand, has less of an emphasis on following the line of the body or exaggerating the line of the body, but instead creates completely new shapes that are almost a defiance of the need to conform. “It was controversial at the time because it presented an idea of a deformed body where there’s protruding lumps and bumps in places where they’re not supposed to be. The critics had a field day,” Katie reflects. The senior curator of fashion and textiles believes one of Westwood’s “biggest gifts to the world” was the act of taking the corset out of the realm of lingerie, and into everyday wear. Examples of this impeccable tailoring will be showcased in the exhibition in a variety of pieces, including looks from her autumn-winter 1987 collection and autumn-winter 1995 collection titled Vive la Cocotte. Another major Westwood drawcard — and perhaps the piece I’m most looking forward to seeing in-the-flesh — is the brand’s tartan-clad 1993 Anglomania wedding dress, famously worn on the runway by Kate Moss. The late Derbyshire-born designer, who once said: “Every fabric that you look at in England has a charge of content”, became synonymous with fabrications deeply connected to Britain’s national identity, recurrently featuring tartan and tweed throughout her six decade-long career. In fact — few names in British fashion have had as much cultural impact as Dame Vivienne, now eternally cemented in the British zeitgeist. And while Westwood was an outspoken voice in fashion, Kawakubo differs, landing on the other end of the spectrum — a reclusive, famously-quiet designer who let her clothes speak for themselves. But don’t let that make you think her quiet voice was less profound. “Over the last couple of years, Rei’s collection titles have been words or phrases that are relatable to what is going on in the world,” Danielle says. “Lamentation was a collection that came out not long after the war in Ukraine began . . . as you know we’re in a time of global crisis on many fronts and (Rei) designs prints that are nods to these troubling times with references to deportation camps and LGBTQI+ rights.” In a dialogue between two of fashion’s fiercest disruptors, the exhibition seems intent on revealing facets of both, inviting visitors to step back and consider the bigger picture. The revolutions sparked by Westwood’s punk London and Kawakubo’s postwar Tokyo mirror one another — parallel waves of radicalism whose reverberations continue to shape the fashion world today. Travel may not take you across continents this summer, but one step into this exhibition will. Megan French was a guest of Visit Victoria and NGV. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication. fact file + Westwood | Kawakubo opens at NGV International on December 7, 2025 and continues to April 19, 2026. + Tickets are available to book on www.ngv.vic.gov.au, and are priced between $18-98. + The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring reflections from industry experts including Dame Zandra Rhodes and Jane Mulvaugh.