National Gallery Victoria’s world-premiere summer blockbuster exhibition pairs two global icons 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. 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.

Through a showstopping display of more than 140 ground-breaking designs, Westwood | Kawakubo explores these two self-taught rebels of the fashion world. The exhibition brings together important loans from international museums and private collections – including New York’s Metropolitan Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Palais Galliera, and the Vivienne Westwood archive – alongside 100+ works from the NGV Collection.