In The Age of Anarchy, a Giant Sleeps
Review of Andreas Kronthaler For Vivienne Westwood Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Angela Baidoo
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Walking In Her Shoes, Unbroken Boundaries, The Caged Bird
On International Women’s Day (as with every other day) the men wore the skirts at Vivienne Westwood by Andreas Kronthaler, as if in the spirit of solidarity skirt suits and sets were worn with heeled pumps while women mostly wore the pants in a role reversal which reflects what those trying to restrict women’s right may have ultimately feared was happening in the first place. Across the season very few had something concrete to say about the state of the world but it is something we have come to expect from Vivienne Westwood and its founder who – despite running a multi-million dollar fashion brand – implored us all to “Buy Less, Choose Well, Make it Last” which some might see as contradictory but is probably one of the most revolutionary things a business owner can say. Especially as we are living at a time of deliberate design for obsolescence.
Last season gave us a highly likeable collection with a softening of some of the brands house codes and an injection of neon brights, but of late there seems to be something lost, that gut-punch that would wind you for all the punkish ideas that were falling from the runway. Just 8 short years ago for fall 2017 I unearthed a collection of tubular rings wrapped in colourful satin and ribbon used as a design device (fashion truly operates in cycles as this was most recently seen at the fall 2025 Alaïa show dripping with fringing!), the waistband of skirts raised to the shoulders and the late Dame Vivienne walking her show in a striped bomber skirt suit that looked to have been purposely graded up 4 sizes, yet it still worked. It is this level of anarchy that was absent in a collection which presented as Westwood on the surface but needed a connection back to its roots of rebellion. Could that have been achieved through a rousing performance of some sort, or of making a harder hitting statement? Quite possibly. Yet, the inclusion of a birdcage as a prop carried by a model could have referenced the times women are living through, symbolic as it is of a loss of freedom (for the bird), the messaging was subtle but evident.
Silhouettes felt freer this season, although each look will have been underpinned with the brands classic corsetry construction, the collection itself spoke to freedom, to move about the world as a man does or unapologetically as a woman, unrestricted or hobbled by tight fits.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
What we need from Westwood in these politically charged times is rebellion and revolution, even though some may not consider fashion to be a medium that can be revolutionary we have seen designer’s choosing to stand on a higher moral ground, from Connor Ives ‘Protect the Dolls’ T’shirt to the GMBH graphic slogan of “Refuse to trade with the enemy” and Dilara Findikoglu who advocated for women to return to Venus, from whence they came. Across the board designers need to push against homogeneity and break more boundaries, and this task should not just be left to emerging talent. They too are looking to the big names such as Vivienne Westwood to show them that true rebels never die.
