Opening 7 December 2025, the NGV’s world-premiere summer blockbuster exhibition pairs two global icons – and iconoclasts – of the fashion world for the first time, British designer Vivienne Westwood (1941 – 2022) and Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) of Comme des Garçons.
Born a year apart in different countries and cultural contexts, each brought a rule-breaking radicalism to fashion design that subverted the status quo. Today, their critically acclaimed collections are celebrated globally for questioning conventions of taste, gender and beauty, as well as challenging the very form and function of clothing.
‘This exhibition celebrates two leading female fashion designers from different cultural backgrounds, who both had strong creative spirits and pushed boundaries,” said Tony Ellwood AM, Director, NGV.
“Through nearly 150 designs from the NGV Collection and key international loans, Westwood | Kawakubo invites audiences to reflect on the enduring legacies of these groundbreaking designers and contemplate the ways in which fashion can be a vehicle for self-expression and freedom.
The exhibition brings together important loans from international museums and private collections – including New York’s Metropolitan Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Palais Galliera, and the Vivienne Westwood archive – alongside 100+ outstanding works from the NGV Collection.
The exhibition features more than 80 works that have recently entered the NGV Collection, including 40 outstanding works recently gifted to the NGV by Comme des Garçons especially for this exhibition.
Presented thematically, Westwood | Kawakubo charts the defining collections and concerns of their practices – from the mid-1970s to the present day – inviting audiences to consider the multiple ways that Westwood and Kawakubo have each rewritten fashion over the course of their careers.
Alongside fashion, the exhibition also features archival materials, photography and runway footage, offering audiences a deep insight into the minds and creative processes of these two legends of contemporary fashion.
Exhibition highlights include Westwood’s iconic punk ensembles from the late 1970s, popularised by London bands such as The Sex Pistols and Siouxsie Sioux; a romantic MacAndreas tartan gown from Westwood’s Anglomania collection (autumn-winter 1993-94), famously worn by Kate Moss on the runway; and the original version of the corseted Wedding dress from the Wake Up, Cave Girl Autumn-winter 2007-08 collection, famously worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and The City: The Movie.
In 2017, The Met in New York staged the exhibition, Rei Kawakubo / Comme des Garçons: The Art of the In-Between, which opened with the cultural phenomenon the Met Gala. The NGV exhibition features a version of the sculptural petal ensemble worn by Rihanna on the red carpet, as well as key designs from collections of those worn by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Tracee Ellis Ross. Also on display are Kawakubo’s dramatic abstract works of the last two decades which challenge the relationship between the body and clothing.
These include the playful Two Dimensions, spring-summer 2012, and the abstract forms of Invisible Clothes spring-summer 2017. The iconic sculptural gingham forms from Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body collection (spring-summer 1997) also feature.
Major showstopping moments in the exhibition include a dramatic, spot-lit gallery highlighting how both designers have been influenced by fashion and dressmaking history: Westwood’s sweeping silk taffeta ball gowns inspired by 18th century court dress are presented alongside Kawakubo’s punk interpretations in pink vinyl and rich floral jacquard.
A further dynamic display juxtaposes the bold, red tartans, English tweeds, grey plaids and navy pinstripes of Kawakubo with Westwood’s iconic tailoring. Sculptural, deconstructed, cinched and exaggerated silhouettes demonstrate their exacting approaches to cutting and textile traditions.
The exhibition design presents the two distinct voices of Westwood and Kawakubo as parallel yet fundamentally unique forces in fashion. The design uses symmetry as its cornerstone concept, presenting these designers like left and right hands; similar but not identical.
“The NGV has established itself as a major destination for fashion in our region, amassing the largest and most significant fashion and textiles collection in the southern hemisphere – I’m sure audiences of all ages from near and far will be drawn in to explore, imagine and marvel,” said Minister for Creative Industries, Colin Brooks.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an ambitious world-first publication, also titled Westwood | Kawakubo, exploring the intersecting histories of the designers with new reflections from industry experts including Bella Freud, Jane Mulvagh, Valerie Steele, Stephen Jones, Akiko Fukai, Chrissie Hynde, Alexander Fury, Ki Price, and Zandra Rhodes.
Westwood | Kawakubo
NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Exhibition: 7 December 2025 – 19 April 2026
Entry fees apply
For more information, visit: www.ngv.melbourne for details.
Images: Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo on display at NGV International, Melbourne – photo by Sean Fennessy | Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo on display at NGV International, Melbourne. Vivienne Westwood Look 19, Jacket, shirt, knickers, bum pad, leggings, hat, crop, boots, 1994 and Look 34 Cape, shirt, corset, and boots and hat 1994 and Look 78, Dress, bum pad and shoes, 1994 from the On Liberty collection, autumn-winter 1994-1995 and Mini Skirt and shoes from Café Society collection 1994. Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood Heritage – photo by Sean Fennessy | Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo on display at NGV International, Melbourne – photo by Sean Fennessy | Installation view of Westwood | Kawakubo on display at NGV International, Melbourne – photo by Sean Fennessy