Vivienne Westwood declared her husband Andreas
Kronthaler “the world’s greatest designer” as he emerged from her flamboyant
shadow Saturday with his first solo Paris show.
The Austrian-born designer — who says he suspects he is the basis for
comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2009 fashion satire “Bruno” — lived up to his
larger-than-life reputation with a spectacular explosion of
convention-defying
decadence.
As guests cheered his chutzpah, Westwood confessed to reporters that
Kronthaler — who is 25 years her junior — had long been the power behind
the
throne.
“Over the years he has taken over the experimental stuff and I have
had to
follow. He calls me his muse. I think it was time the public understood the
truth of this,” said the 74-year-old queen of the punk fashion revolution.
“I think he is the greatest designer in the world. He wouldn’t like me to
say that because he is always frightened. I have learnt so much from him,”
she
added.
Kronthaler, who has worked closely with Westwood for years both as a
model,
stylist and muse, sent a dizzying array of disparate looks down the runway
in
the show billed as “Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood”.
All were in one way or another gender bending, with priestly girls, men
in
gold lame dresses and snake-skin effect boots, and women in oversized Alpine
jackets from his native Tyrol.
Some of his models looked like senators emerging from a Roman bathhouse
in
blood-red togas while others wore long trailing Tibetan monk’s hats, but all
— male and female — wore platform shoes and boots.
Kronthaler’s solo debut came on the same day that former supermodel
Jerry
Hall married the octogenarian media mogul Rupert Murdoch in London wearing a
comparatively restrained light blue Westwood dress.
And Westwood admitted that when she first met Kronthaler “he was too big,
he needed pulling down with an anchor.” He is a perfectionist, she said,
“Every stitch is perfect, it has to be perfect for him.”
But Westwood insisted he was also a great innovator.
“Nobody has done what he has done and put a toga on top of pants,” she
said.
She said they would continue to design her main collections together as a
couple, but that they were going to reduce their line, because it was
“better
for the environment… We have got too big already.”
Westwood revealed she was really taken by Kronthaler’s togas and male
dresses, which she urged more men to wear. “Unisex is good for the
environment.” Couples would not “have to buy so many clothes”, she insisted,
if they only shared their wardrobes.
Andreas and
Vivienne with their muse Sharon Lishman has just arrived at the venue. Stay
tuned for more behind the scenes action for #AKAW1617.A photo posted by Vivienne Westwood
(@viviennewestwoodofficial) on Mar
5, 2016 at 5:15am PSTFor all the affront of the show’s title, “Sexercise”, beyond the
carnal
colours it seemed more inspired by flowing religious robes than it was by
lust.
Certainly Kronthaler and Westwood — who fell madly in love when he was
22
and she 47 — could not have been more demure in the video they posted on
Twitter to introduce the show.
With Westwood sitting on his knee in the library of their Queen Anne home
in London, she very graciously gave him all the creative credit. “You did it
all,” she said.Elsewhere Paris fashion week hit its stride with the 1980s influence
on the
latest trends becoming more pronounced.
Japanese designers were the talk of the town, with five staging highly
acclaimed shows within 48 hours led by Junya Watanabe, Yohji Yamamoto and
Undercover’s Jun Takahashi. (AFP)