Vivienne Westwood Autumn/Winter 2026 Show Honors Punk Legacy In Paris

Andreas Kronthaler closed the Vivienne Westwood autumn/winter 2026 show at Paris Fashion Week with a bride carrying radishes. The bouquet, clutched beneath an enormous cylindrical headpiece, was precisely the kind of subversive gesture the house has always traded in, and it landed with full force.

Models emerged from dramatic lighting that cast long reflections across the floor, creating a stage-like atmosphere that felt less like a runway presentation and more like a provocation. The visual language was unmistakably Westwood: bold stockings, oversized headwear, and broad-shouldered silhouettes rooted in 1980s punk tailoring. Plaid overcoats, a trend that also surfaced at Chloe this season, were layered over ruched pencil skirts and pussy-bow blouses, the combination simultaneously precise and destabilizing.

The collection drew its architecture from historical dress: corsets, bustles, and crinolines reinterpreted with the rebellious twist that defined the founder's four-decade career. Kronthaler's approach combined heritage tailoring with avant-garde construction, working within the house's established vocabulary while pushing its proportions into something more confrontational. Layered corsetry and gender-blurring looks ran throughout, the collection's theatricality remaining intact from opening look to finale.

Since Vivienne Westwood's death in 2022, Kronthaler, her longtime collaborator and husband, has shouldered the creative direction alone. The house has always been long known for challenging conventions of class, gender, and historical dress, and Saturday's show gave no indication that Kronthaler intends to soften any of those positions. He appeared on the runway at the show's close to share a kiss with the bride, an image that said more about his commitment to the house's spirit than any formal statement could.

The bride herself wore a precisely tailored two-piece with a cinched waist and long column skirt, the silhouette disciplined where the headpiece was extravagant. The contrast was the point.

Singer Chappell Roan joined fellow musicians Lola Young and Paris Jackson among the stars seated front row, a front row that reflected the brand's enduring pull with a generation that treats punk not as nostalgia but as a live current. Their presence underscored what the clothes were arguing: that deconstruction and theatricality are not relics of Westwood's SEX boutique era but an ongoing and urgent project.