Elegance With an Edge: luxury bags by Vivienne Westwood

The latest luxury bags collection by Vivienne Westwood is a celebration of a specific fashionista: the one of a kind, preferring elegance that refuses to behave and standard norms. Vivienne Westwood’s bags capture this attitude almost perfectly. Never born to follow the rules of proportion or to hum along politely in the background, they transform into fashion companions for the daring ones.

Some of the glossy finishes may recall something half memory, half from the future we pictured in your dreams. Never nostalgic, not too much futuristic. Just sharp for the present, to celebrate fashion, to offer companionship to the always bored ones. Curved silhouettes defy the expectation of softness and replace it with a precise intent, never minding about settling with the smallest possible damage. And that’s definitely their unspoken power: never declaring dominance boldly, but rather changing the register and the field of the battle.

Velvet textures, gilded frames, sharp clasps. There may be some theatre here, but no melodrama. These are pieces that understand silhouette like a sculptor understands stone. Not exactly the kind of bag for the ones wanting to follow influencers and live a life (and wear items) by the rules of somebody else.

Simply Vivienne

Vivienne Westwood never meddled with polite fashion. She tried to sculpt rebellion, making it into a likable yet bold silhouette, distilled punk essence between fabric folds. Her legacy is still living (and will always live) on in every bag of her collection. The very same spirit that pinned wonderful tartans against authority (of fashion) now anchors a handbag to your shoulder with the same audacity.

And still, there is something clever in the right amount, in each of the bags of the latest Vivienne’s collection. Details never being just details and never a homage to pointless complexity. They are there indeed to serve tension, balance and also asymmetry. A chain is never just a handle, a clasp doesn’t close so much as define.

Materials are treated like part of our character. Tartan is maybe more assertive, while quilted textures hold their ground without softness or compromise. Each surface tells you something you never asked, but that you are going to appreciate nonetheless. 

You definitely don’t carry them because they match your coat or your shoes. You carry them because something about them is right, unique, stable in a world of copycat chaos. And yes, a tote can be useful without ever being dull. A clutch can be functional without losing its necessary wit. 

Forget the old score

Wearing such a bag isn’t about fashion. It’s about music, rhythm, accents, tones and rhymes. It is all about timing. The right Vivenne’s bag can sharpen the edge of your plain outfit, the one you thought to be so dull you would never wear on your good days. Such bags can bring shape to the day before you’ve say a word. You leave the house with a bag that looks like it has opinions, and it does. Because you have opinions too. And they matter, in fashion or in “more important” fields.

Because in the end, it’s not just about the bag and it’s never about fashion. It’s about carrying an idea, maybe the refusal to play it safe. Westwood never made things to blend in and has never been appreciated by the ones desperately trying to. She made things that asked questions for people who had no answers, flirting with danger, daring to be wrong in the most thrilling way. Her bags still do. Which is why they are at the center of fashion and more.