{"id":367627,"date":"2026-03-27T07:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367627\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T07:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:15:07","slug":"she-broke-the-rules-fearlessly-exhibition-explores-vivienne-westwoods-revolutionary-work-vivienne-westwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367627\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She broke the rules, fearlessly\u2019: exhibition explores Vivienne Westwood\u2019s revolutionary work | Vivienne Westwood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Smithson\u2019s wife, Belise, has never minded when he receives a corset from Japan or a pair of fur-trimmed knickers and they are not for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, she\u2019s never seen it as strange,\u201d said Smithson, a chemistry teacher and Vivienne Westwood<\/a> supercollector. \u201cShe has never judged it. She gets it. She knows it is part and parcel of who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smithson is speaking at a preview of a major fashion exhibition that draws almost entirely upon his incredible private collection, built up over 30 years.<\/p>\n

There are more than 40 ensembles from his collection on display at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham<\/a>. The gallery spaces are a blizzard of tartan tweed, dazzling harlequin print, faux-fur coats, oversized velvet crowns and mirrored fig-leaf tights, which Smithson acknowledges would not be everyone\u2019s choice for a night out.<\/p>\n

A pair of \u2018Seditionary\u2019 boots, on loan from Jill Bryant Smith. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine it\u2019s fairly limited who\u2019s going to buy and wear one,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s about fun. She comes up with an idea and it is about producing something that she enjoys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on display are accessories, shoes, jewellery and other Westwood ephemera from Smithson\u2019s collection \u2013 displayed to tell stories, alongside treasures from the Bowes\u2019 own extensive holdings.<\/p>\n

Smithson was brought up in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, and remembers gazing out of the car window as a young boy and admiring people with strong looks.<\/p>\n

As a 10-year-old, he watched Westwood being interviewed by Sue Lawley on Wogan<\/a> and remembers being confused by the howls of laughter from the audience as they saw her designs on the models.<\/p>\n

It was car crash television. \u201cI couldn\u2019t understand why Sue Lawley and the audience were lampooning her. I was looking at the models thinking they were just fantastic looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further exhibits from the Vivienne Westwood: Rebel \u2013 Storyteller \u2013 Visionary exhibition, including a Harris tweed jacket, bloomer trousers with sheepskin trim and a hat and muff. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

His eureka moment came when as a teenager he went clothes shopping in Manchester and stumbled upon a shop. \u201cThis guy came out wearing a metropolitan tartan suit with the tartan bondage trousers,\u201d Smithson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, it was the expression on his face, that joy, that confidence. I looked at him, and I looked at the shop he\u2019d come out of, and I saw the red canopy with the yellow writing. You know, Vivienne Westwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that moment, I looked at her and thought, it\u2019s Westwood. She\u2019s the one I\u2019ve been admiring all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derbyshire-born Westwood<\/a> is remembered as one of \u201cthe most daring British designers in British history\u201d, said Vicky Sturrs, the director of programmes and collections at the Bowes Museum.<\/p>\n

Also on display are accessories, shoes, jewellery and other Westwood ephemera. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Westwood moved to London when she was 17 but, Sturrs said, \u201cnever lost her northern roots, and her fearless creativity still resonates powerfully with this region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rachel Whitworth, the fashion and textiles curator at the museum, said Westwood\u2019s designs were revolutionary not just in their appearance, but in the way they were constructed. \u201cShe broke the rules of design, experimenting fearlessly with technique, proportion and historical reference. She drew from the past, created for the present and remained sharply conscious of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smithson met Westwood on a number of occasions and she lived up to his expectations. \u201cShe was very welcoming, very humble, completely down to earth,\u201d he said. \u201cI think she absolutely despised the global superstardom that surrounded her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smithson is the father of two boys, six and nine, who may end up sharing his passion for fashion. \u201cMy nine-year-old already has a very good eye for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Westwood aficionado Smithson at the exhibition. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

He said collecting Westwood had given him a \u201clifetime of pleasure\u201d and that it was wonderful to see his objects being enjoyed by other people. He hopes the exhibition, which also has loans from other private collections, Manchester Art Gallery and Fashion Musuem Bath, will inspire the next generation of fashion designers.<\/p>\n

Smithson, wearing a classy Westwood denim jacket from his days of partying in Manchester \u2013 \u201cI very rarely wear it these days,\u201d he said \u2013 often gets asked why, as a straight, married teacher who wears boring shirt-and-tie clothes in the classroom, he is obsessed with Westwood and her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer is that I just felt a connection to her and her clothes from a very early age. When I saw her on Wogan, I looked at the models and they were just high on life \u2026 I wanted to experience that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Smithson\u2019s wife, Belise, has never minded when he receives a corset from Japan or a pair of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-367627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}