Vivienne Westwood + Jewellery
April 2025 | Wellington, New Zealand
Te Papa Museum
By pure coincidence, the Vivienne Westwood + Jewellery exhibition was open at the same time I visited my family in Wellington. Held at Te Papa Tongarewa, this show was big enough to even create a bit of a buzz back home in Australia, so I was pretty excited to get the chance to see it up close.
Walking into the first room of the exhibition, we were welcomed with ‘models’ in full Westwood fashion, surrounded by walls of moving imagery and audio. Setting the scene and tone of what was to come, with Vivienne’s signature boldness and sense of protest, challenging and investigation of traditions.
We continued through room after room full of cabinets, overflowing with items from the Westwood collection, items larger than life, in your face, bold and risque. I found myself wide-eyed and open-mouthed the whole way through, overheating my phone from the constant snapping of photos and videos.
The sheer volume of work on display was quite extraordinary, such a feast for the eyes, and a real treat for this jewellery fan! There was so much to take in, that even after about 2 hours walking through on that first visit, I had to come back a few days later for a second look. I still managed to find something new in every room on that second visit, I also found myself deep diving into details, wanting to know more - what does the back look like? How does this necklace do up? How is it constructed? I was even fascinated by the displays, which looked to be custom made for each individual piece. Jewellery is all about the details after all, right?
Now I’m not a VW expert, and I’m not here to break down the work through a historic or academic lens, but I merely speak of my experience visiting this show, as I found it made quite an impact on me. Way more than I expected.
I found myself struck by the sense of sheer freedom in her work - freedom in scale, colours, materials, themes - a sense of defiant courage (‘of course I’m going to use gold plated brass with real snail shells - who says I can’t?’). Yet this wild freedom was still executed with high skill and fine craftsmanship. I found myself in awe of this, and quite envious, as I constantly find myself overthinking things, or hyper-focusing on parameters and restraints - ‘if it’s too big, no one will wear it’; ‘if it’s not precious metals, no one will pay for it’; and similar thoughts that tend to paralyse me during the creative process.
Seeing her work, and what is possible, was an inspiration. It made me excited to entertain more ideas, and let myself explore more freely in the future.
Photos by Susannah Kings-Lynne