The Red-Haired Revolutionary
‘The only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word conformity.’ From rubbing shoulders with punk rock royalty in her early days to receiving royal honours while proudly defying sartorial expectations, every chapter of Dame Vivienne Westwood’s illustrious career was a testament to this ethos. Westwood didn’t simply reject convention—she redefined it. Her designs, laced with rebellious spirit and subversive wit, pushed the boundaries of fashion and proudly flashed an orb-encrusted middle finger at the status quo. 
Image supplied by Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery at Te Papa 2025
Jewellery has always been at the heart of Vivienne Westwood’s brand DNA, serving as both a statement and a subversion. Pulling from a wide range of influences—from the daring world of fetish culture or the pages of history—Westwood masterfully juxtaposed safety pins and bicycle chains with pearls and precious metals. This fearless blend of the raw and the refined became the hallmark of her avant-garde jewellery collections. Now, in a world-first, her bold legacy is on display, with 550 archival and runway jewellery pieces embarking on a global tour—first stop, New Zealand.
Image supplied by Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery at Te Papa 2025
On Friday, 17 January, Te Papa made history as the inaugural venue to debut the Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery exhibition. For the first time, pieces spanning over four decades of Westwood’s revolutionary jewellery designs are curated and displayed together. This landmark exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the house’s rich heritage, inviting admirers to explore the bold, rebellious spirit that has defined Westwood’s jewellery legacy. 
Image supplied by Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery at Te Papa 2025
Guests are invited to traverse through a series of rooms that chronicle the pivotal eras of Vivienne Westwood's diverse and decorated career, from the rebellious 1970s to the present day. Each space is meticulously curated to reflect distinct decades of design, with era-defining pieces presented as objets d’art, surrounded by a chaos of wall prints and sounds, catwalk looks, imagery, and video, creating a sensory-rich homage to Westwood’s world. From the fantastical whimsy of Wonderland to the raw irreverence of Do It Yourself, her boundary-pushing artistic aesthetic pulsates from one room to the next, offering an intimate look behind her ever-evolving, eclectic lens. The narrative reveals how Westwood consistently shattered conventions—not merely stepping outside the box but reconstructing it entirely.
Image supplied by Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery at Te Papa 2025
As her story unfolds, we discover that among the diamond-encrusted safety pins and crab-claw earrings, Westwood championed the written word as her ultimate accessory. In her own words: ‘It is impossible to be creative unless you have a link with the past and tradition. You cannot merely have a desire to create something and attempt to do it without learning from the techniques of the past.’ This ethos—a deep reverence for history and those who shaped it—permeates her work. Westwood’s designs were never just an assertion of her individuality but a canvas upon which she honoured the people, stories, and cultures that inspired her. Whether weaving in the rebellious spirit of punk, the opulence of 18th-century art, or the raw energy of subcultures, she approached design with a rare humility. For Westwood, creativity was a dialogue—a collaboration between past and present, her vision and the voices that came before her.
Today, Westwood’s legacy lives on, not only in her iconic orb and punk-inspired designs but in the enduring influence she has left on the fashion world—proof that rebellion, like great design, never goes out of style.
Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery is now open at Te Papa until Sunday, 27 April 2025.
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