Corset
1990 {Portrait collection, autumn-winter, 1990–91}
Medium
viscose (jersey), silk, elastane, cotton polyester, synthetic leather, polyester (boning,) metal (fastenings)
Measurements
34.0 cm (centre back) 28.0 cm (waist, flat)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program, 2025
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
This design is from Westwood’s Portrait collection, inspired by eighteenth-century art from the Wallace Collection. On the corset’s front, Westwood reproduced a 1743–45 painting by François Boucher known as Shepherd watching a sleeping shepherdess. The garment subverts the voyeuristic male gaze of Boucher’s original work by placing the erotic scene on a piece of clothing traditionally worn as a woman’s undergarment. As if to reinforce this, during the runway presentation models Susie Bick and Sara Stockbridge, each wearing the Boucher corset, linked arms and kissed.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
England
Inscription
label, right shoulder seamline, woven in red on white acetate: (orb) / Vivienne / Westwood / MADE IN ENGLAND
Accession Number
2025.594
Department
International Fashion and Textiles