Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear: Vivienne Westwood

After appearing with Dame Viv and her husband, Andreas Kronthaler, in the Vivienne Westwood Spring advertising campaign, Pamela Anderson walked the runway at today's Fall show. Her first time out, Pammy's arms were bound behind her back. She's not exactly your typical fashion muse, and her getup wasn't exactly the kind of thing you expect to see on the catwalk—but remember who we're talking about here. Westwood also saw fit to send out three-meter lengths of raw-cut fabric tossed about the shoulders and call them cloaks; then there were the dresses with crinolines permanently kicked up, the hems inching past the models' ears as if they had found themselves in the middle of a hurricane.

Speaking of inclement weather, Westwood dubbed her collection "+5°," as in the five degrees the earth's average temperatures are calculated to rise as CO2 levels skyrocket. The symbol appeared on T-shirts, and the message gave her a good excuse to extend the do-it-yourself/consume-less idea she put forth last season, this time via borrowed-from-your man's-closet big jackets. Amid Anderson's shenanigans and the political propaganda there were one or two moments that recalled Westwood's iconoclastic heyday: a Lurex-shot Edwardian jacket worn with baggy camo-print cargos for one, and a black dévoré velvet, one-shoulder, asymmetrically wrapped dress for another. But it would've required a few more for this collection to be taken seriously.



















Thank god, we finally saw something new!
'Cause in a fashion industry where many designers keep repeating themselves, Viv knows how to differentiate!

xoxo Athena