Vivienne Westwood's famous corsets on display in Paris and London

In 1987, the punk fashion queen Vivienne Westwood transformed the corset and its rigid underwiring into a stylish garment, a true work of art. The label's Parisian boutique, located at number 175 rue Saint-Honoré, is launching an exhibition to revisit the art of corsetry, which was famously reinvented by the avant-garde British designer.

This Parisian retrospective will pay tribute to the stylistic legacy of the talented designer who died in December at the age of 81. While questioning social conventions and established norms, Vivienne Westwood transformed the historic corset and its symbolic constraints into a feminine, sensual and obviously offbeat garment.

The corset, from constraining to liberating

She deconstructed and then reconstructed the garment, which was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries in European courts, by embellishing it with floral motifs, embroidering it with silver lurex thread, or giving it a low cut or extra high waist or extravagant or oversized shaped sides.

In her Autumn/Winter 1987 collection, called "Harris Tweed", she presented her first jet-black corset. She ditched the infernal back lacing for a zip, and removed the whalebones at the hips that restricted movement.

The old tight and uncomfortable structure of the corset (thought to correspond to a stereotyped beauty) was therefore much looser and ressembled more of an "armour". Practical, modern and revolutionary. 

Three years later, Vivienne Westwood repeated her mischievous exploration of the history of corsetry with an eccentric and glamorous piece, on which she printed Daphnis and Chloé, an oil painting from 1743 by François Boucher. This creation was then added to the prestigious private Wallace collection in London.

Although the corset was originally designed to sculpt women's bodies, Vivienne Westwood has been offering men's versions since 1996, such as a low-cut garment in orange and white cotton jacquard for the Spring/Summer 2020 collection, designed by her husband and successor, Austrian designer Andreas Kronthaler.

This retrospective of Vivienne Westwood's corsets, which can be seen for free in Paris until Sunday April 30, will then be exhibited in London from May 8, in the label's London flagship at 44 Conduit Street.