Violet Velvet Mittens: It’s a thin line between love & hate.

One of the many great things about style & its perception is that everything reads as in the eye of the beholder. What one person believes to be vulgar, others see as a refreshing manifestation of all things hip & inspired. Take Vivienne Westwood. Do guys, of the non-camp camp, really appreciate her wonder, her unswerving ability to keep pushing the boundaries of ‘taste’ further & further, particularly with her own personal style? Many artistes create such perfected personas that compliment their lines, their canvas, an image that makes a house.

A shock of red hair & a staple of badges pinned to her body: Vivienne Westwood’s character emanates as if unending from her own essence through to her collections. From her almost humble abode at 430 King’s Road, ‘71, the infamous Sex store was born in ’74, & Ms Westwood caused quite a stir with pieces inspired by S&M, punk & the pirate. Together with her business partner & then lover, Malcolm McLaren, Westwood dressed the Sex Pistols, & from then on, the rest, as they say, is history.

Carrie Bradshaw, heroine of Sex & the City, chose Westwood for the final showdown: The Wedding Scene. Paired with a fantastically courageous turquoise feather, the structured layers and the shaped bustier create an elfin-twisted haute couture fairytale as she exits the cab at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. What I loved was what so many people were drawn to hate: the feather. Yes, it’s turquoise & about a foot in length, but it gives drama to an outfit that for Westwood is relatively mute. It really brings a touch of the 1940s to the modern punk that is brought out in the dress.

Sex and the City breached the gap between what was acceptable & expected of city women, with the world of haute couture & constant innovation that was previously restricted to the catwalks of Paris & Milan. Granted, this may have been taken to extreme on occasion, toying with audience naïveté on what was really happening on the streets of New York between women & fashion. Take the character of Carrie: she evidently relishes the walk of shame after a night at Big’s so much so that her nonchalance brings her to don a large white men’s shirt, secure a black leather belt to give the outfit a waist, & simply add stilettos. Would this genuinely happen in real life? I don’t think it matters. Patricia Field, costume designer for Sex & the City for much of its career, made us sit up & watch. Here was a high-fashion editorial look being played out on the small screen. That’s what made it real, the fact that it was fashion, & it was happening real-time.

Sarah Jessica Parker, as Carrie, revived the corsage, putting it back into everyday vernacular: