Jeremy Pope Wore Archival Vivienne Westwood to the Met Gala
Vivienne Westwood’s fall 1996 collection marked the late British designer’s official foray into menswear, with two sensationally beaded and corseted evening jackets as its ultimate hero pieces. On Westwood’s catwalk, these dual pieces were styled with piratey headscarves and black wool trousers. One of them, named “Martyr to Love,” will be in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s spring exhibit, “Costume Art,” which opens to the public this Sunday, May 10. Its twin, “Slave to Love,” walked the Met Gala mossy faux cobblestone carpet tonight on Jeremy Pope. This year’s dress code, “Fashion Is Art,” drew numerous interpretations ahead of the actual gala—most of which connected with the corporeal realm, or the many ways the body itself serves as the ultimate costume. Apropos of the theme, Pope’s Westwood evening jacket boasts a trompe l’oeil torso: On its front, myriad pearls conspire to create a beefy, musclebound body—pecs high and tight, abdomen blocky and bulging, waist as snatched as can be. Its back side, covered in large, bloody lacerations accentuated by dangling ruby-red droplets, tells …
