“I think it was always going to happen; it was just a question of when,” Palace co-founder, Gareth Skewis, tells Vogue of the brand’s collaboration with Vivienne Westwood. “We have defo spoken about it for a long time,” echoes fellow co-founder, Lev Tanju.
Both Lev and Gareth had met the Westwood team “out and about in Soho” over the past few years – “he has the most amazing energy and charisma about him,” Gareth describes of Andreas Kronthaler, Vivienne Westwood’s husband, who heads up the brand. Gareth also shares that he and the late designer’s granddaughter, Cora Corré, have often chatted about “how interesting it could be” to collaborate. “She was involved in lining it all up.”
“A lot of us at Palace have always loved VW and all its different versions,” continues Gareth, who first “fell in love” with Westwood’s work when he learnt of the Sex Pistols, aged 13, and of the legendary store, Sex, on King’s Road. “It was so fascinating to me,” he says. “I found the evolution of her work crazy inspiring and extraordinary.” There was a mutual appreciation in the Palace office: Lev and Gareth worked with in-house designers Nugget (Gabriel Pluckrose) and Sophia Messina, and Lev’s wife, fashion designer Ashley Williams. “I really wanted people with different loves for Westwood to come together and make something amazing. They all love and respect different parts of Vivienne Westwood, so it was really cool to put what everyone’s loves into a pot and make something really special,” says Lev.
Naturally, the Westwood archive was a pivotal source of inspiration during the design process. Nugget suggested using the Salon print, first seen for spring/summer 1992 and newly realised in Gore-Tex on a hooded jacket, track pants on a skirt, highlighting it was “totally palatial”. “Him and Andreas were both really into the idea in an early meeting,” Lev explains. Other Westwood signatures, including bondage details, bears, the tits T-shirt and corsetry – one is emblazoned with a print of Lev’s dog, Stuart – are reimagined through the disruptive Palace lens. It is also the first time Palace has officially launched a womenswear category: “I think you just get a feeling when it’s the right time and the right project,” Gareth explains. “It felt really natural and the right thing to do with Vivienne Westwood.”
The accompanying campaign embodies the combined subversive spirit that both teams wanted to push, shot by Shoichi Aoki. Lev, Gareth and Andreas tapped Aoki’s unique approach, which comes to life in his own street-style magazine, FRUiTS, after Lev saw his exhibition in Tokyo. “We went for a Japanese curry after and Ash (Williams) said we should shoot with him!”. “When I got back, I had a meeting with Andreas and got really excited about the prospect and it all snowballed from there.” Lively spots shot “late into the night” in Soho, Chinatown, Camden and Shaftesbury Avenue provided backdrops for the stellar cast, featuring Sibyl Buck (a Westwood muse), musicians Sematary and Matt Ox, Palace rider Lucien Clarke, Ed Teller and Issa Lish, and Josh Caffé, and Lev took a picture of Aoki to star in the campaign. “It was a complete honour to work on everything,” Lev shares. “This is one of my favourite Palace collaborations ever.”
Palace X Vivienne Westwood launches globally at 11am (BST) on Friday 6 September, available at flagships and online at Palace, Vivienne Westwood and Dover Street Market.
