This ‘Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery’ exhibition in Macau pays homage to the late designer

Widely regarded as Britain’s most influential fashion designer, the late Vivienne Westwood is often remembered as much for her jewellery as for her clothes. It was 1986 when her now-iconic brand logo, The Orb, was born, inspired by British royal insignia but infused with Westwood’s signature rebellious touch. Today, her version of the royal orb, adorned with the rings of Saturn, is a house staple adorning choker necklaces and other punk jewellery pieces, like talismans representing the designer’s all-encompassing creative universe.

Long before Westwood made a name for herself in fashion, in fact, she studied silversmithing at London’s Harrow Art School and sold handmade jewellery at the Portobello Road Market. The “mother of punk” and her extensive archive of jewellery designs are the focus of a celebrated exhibition, “Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery”, which opened at Macau’s Grand Lisboa Palace Resort this week, following successful stops in Shanghai and Chengdu. Westwood’s well-documented activist streak takes on new meaning when viewed in this context; while she often used fashion as a platform for subverting social norms, nowhere are her contrarian ways and idiosyncratic point of view more apparent than in her jewellery.