Style’s a cinch for the A-list with a Vivienne Westwood corset

It’s not yet two years since the death of Dame Vivienne Westwood, but she can count on young A-listers to keep her fashion legacy alive.
A new generation is discovering the brand and its £990 signature corsets — including Taylor Swift.
The pop star appears to be the British label’s latest and greatest fan. She will wear it on stage at Wembley Stadium tonight during her Eras tour, was spotted in one of its tartan ensembles at the London club Annabel’s on Monday night and chose another Vivienne Westwood trademark — a £620 sky-blue Sunday dress — for a party in Amsterdam last month.
The designer’s original target market in 1971 was that era’s young rebels, although these days you’re more likely to see her greatest fashion hits — exaggerated hourglass silhouettes, stacked platform shoes, pearl chokers and, of course, tartan — on a Hollywood princess than a picket line.
The actress Helena Bonham Carter once said that Vivienne Westwood designed clothes in which women could comfortably eat a full English. Perhaps that is one reason why a new generation of It-girls are choosing the brand as their go-to.
The singer Dua Lipa is also a fan. So is Beyoncé’s 12-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. The actress Jodie Comer too. Daisy Edgar-Jones chose a Vivienne Westwood gown to promote her latest film, Twisters, last month.
The item they each have in their wardrobes is a Westwood classic: a corseted gown tailored to give its wearer a figure to rival Botticelli’s Venus. Swift wears a dramatic, custom white iteration for one section of her Eras tour, the European leg of which concludes in London this weekend. The pop star also wore a checked miniskirt and blazer to host a party for her staff. If the £1,500 ensemble soon sells out — or proliferates across the high street — you’ll know why.
British Vogue’s Joy Montgomery, 32, recently purchased her first item from the brand too: a black and white corset. “A Vivienne Westwood corset is not just a corset,” she tells me. “It’s femininity as its most performative.”
Fiona Stuart, owner of Notting Hill’s vintage temple Rellik London, says she has noticed renewed interest in the brand since the designer’s death, across all age groups.
“The corsets — and corset blouses, corset dresses — are particularly popular,” she says. “I think her death made her relevant again: people are thinking about her a lot more and seeing her clothes and pictures of her old shows on Instagram.”
The brand is now run by Westwood’s widower, Andreas Kronthaler.
The joy of the designs, says Stuart, is that even if they go viral, they still look unique. “No two women look the same in her clothes,” Stuart says.