" I want to make an elegant tribute to the world of theatre.
It’s there where everything is possible. We need space where people express themselves freely without censorship. If you lose that, you don’t have culture.
We need to protect our world.
Art is an imitation of life. It stands outside time. It’s more about making clothes than fashion. I wanted to do something noble and formal.
To make a moving painting - a picture come to life in order to seduce the mind through the eyes. You discover the truth through working. You learn something from it.
Clothes are able to mirror your inner being, whether it is happiness, harmony, fear, kindness, anger, respect….
But more than any other quality I am looking for lightness! ‘Who is Andreas Kronthaler?’
This time I concentrated on who I am. I tried to find the muse in me. I wasn’t leaning on Vivienne or some other outstanding woman or man. All I can say: That’s me!
The start was – a holy icon of the virgin, crowned in perfect beauty, hair falling over a golden cloak filled with big brocade flowers; holding the child, bound in his swaddling clothes. And another icon - how many different fabrics can you clothe someone in to radiate splendour and beauty? Gold, red, blue, turquoise, purple, yellow satin embroidered and cloaked in lace; Saint Sara, Patron of the gypsies.
At Christmas we watched a film by Jean Renoir, ‘The Golden Coach’ with Anna Magnani.
She was Columbine in a group of street theatre.
I was looking at one of my art books, at the most famous paintings in the world, Watteau’s ‘L’Enseigne de Gersaint’. It gave the 18th century its mirror of life.
Vivienne interpreted this in a couple of prints - looking at the moon “oh but you’re lovely as a blossom born of cloud, all bottomless azure above: clear water, all waves and surging billows below.”
I asked Vivienne if she could decorate a few pieces from the collection with our old Christmas decorations.
Thank you, darling!
© Vivienne Westwood
Artistic Director: Andreas Kronthaler