Vivienne Westwood

PARIS, October 3, 2006
By Nicole Phelps
Vivienne Westwood isn't about to relinquish her role as English fashion's resident provocateur. If today's graffiti print combining "Free Leonard Peltier" and "I am expensiv" (sic) scribbles raises a few eyebrows, so be it. (Ditto for the doodles of the male anatomy that she used for a cape and a sheath.) And if the collection—which ranged from a black skirt suit, draped and tucked at oddly graceful angles, to a remarkably simple, subtly bejeweled blue-velvet bustier dress—wasn't a huge step forward, well, that's not really why people keep coming back.

It's the sheer audacity of the spectacle that intrigues. Snow White stomped down the runway in a purple-and-blue bustier top and yellow ball skirt straight out of the Disney book, but for a few extra inches of cleavage. One of Westwood's favorite models from back in the day, Sara Stockbridge, also made a memorable appearance. If she wasn't smoking a cigarette, she was vamping for photographers, who haven't seen such antics in ages. What of the clothes? Piece by piece, there were some beauties, like a loden green nipped-waist jacket or a deep purple strapless taffeta ball gown with striped lining. But, for all their intricacies, they almost came off as afterthoughts.

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