"We believe this retrospective will provide Thai fashion designers and visitors with the opportunity to learn from the vision and success of one of the world's most respected designers," TCDC managing director Chaiyong Ratana-ung-oon said yesterday.

"By detecting historical, social and cultural references from fashion, visitors will feel inspired to create their own outstanding design work," he said.

"Bangkok will be the seventh city to host the Vivienne Westwood exhibition," said Henrike Ingenthron, coordinator for touring exhibitions for the Victoria and Albert Museum.

"We recognise that the development of the TCDC is quite significant, not only in terms of the

cultural world in Thailand, but

also for the world of international art.

"The partnership between the two institutions goes beyond straightforward exhibition exchange and has involved skills-sharing and secondments," he said.

The exhibition will run from next Friday to September 24 in Gallery 2 on the sixth floor of The Emporium shopping complex.

More than 150 exhibits from Westwood's personal archive and the museum's collections will narrate the evolution of her designs, from the outrageous punk-

rock style of the 1970s, to the

"neo-romantic" designs inspired by classical costumes during the 1980s, to the one-of-a-kind elegance from the 1990s to the present day.

The event also celebrates the extraordinary career of the fashion icon in creating designs that broke with convention, with dynamic applications of traditional styles that became unique to her.

It explores the source of inspiration that drove the working-class Westwood, who took only one fashion design course in her life, to succeed in the fashion world.

"This exhibition will explore Westwood's fearless non-conformity - her impressive challenge to social pressures, the class system and British traditions - in the form of extraordinary designs, uniquely and with an expansive influence on society and the fashion world over the last 30 years," said Chaiyong.

Vivienne Westwood will be the fourth major exhibition hosted by the TCDC in the past year, following "Isaan Retrospective", "DNA of Japanese Design" and "Marimekko". The three exhibitions together attracted about 100,000 visitors.

"We expect about 1,000 people a day to visit the Vivienne Westwood exhibition - fashion designers and those of the general public who are interested in creativity and design," he said.

He said next year would see three major exhibitions on such themes as design, the visual arts, graphic design and animation.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation