SAVAGE TEXTILES
Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow wearing Worlds End • Early 1980’s
How Malcolm McLaren and Dame Vivienne Westwood found textile inspiration in Mable Morrow’s book, Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art, first published in 1975... The duo transformed several of the traditional tribal patterns referenced in Morrow’s book into neo-primitive cotton separates. The uniquely colorful designs also made their way into knitwear in the form of wool jumpers and leg warmers. After a brief cameo in the previous Pirate collection, the iconic printed pieces electrified the runway of their brilliant Spring 1982 follow up, referred to as the Savage collection… The shockingly modern graphic designs found on parfleches and other rawhide accessories crafted by various Native American tribes, eventually found their way onto the backs of the emerging New Romantics, who often frequented the infamously storied Worlds End boutique…
Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren flanked by models in the Worlds End Boutique in Chelsea • London • Early 1980’s
”...That year Westwood launched her second collection, Savage (S/S 1982). She showed prints with geometric patterns derived from Native American Indian saddlebags, leather frock coats, foreign legion hats worn back-to-front with eye slits, soft leather bag boots, bowler hats with padded headbands so that they looked too big, ‘petti-drawers’ and shorts. The catwalk models were styled with body paint, with mud plastered into their hair. ‘The Savage collection... was simply wonderful, combining rich decorative patterns in a very exciting way,’ Valerie Mendes recalls.” • Claire Wilcox in Vivienne Westwood by V&A Publications
Sioux Painted Parfleche Envelope • Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
”Indian rawhide was the basis of one of the major and widespread pre-Columbian folk arts of the North American continent. Rawhide provided the containers for the preservation of dried buffalo meat, the basic food, and for other supplies. It supplied shelter as lodges and was fashioned into clothing. When the buffalo disappeared, a whole way of life was destroyed in a relatively few years for the Indians of North America.” • Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art
Runway model for the Savage show • London • October 1981 • Image courtesy of CATWALK Vivienne Westwood : The Complete Collections by Alexander Fury
Worlds End Sweater • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren • The Costume Institute • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York CIty
Painted Parfleche Envelope • Possibly attributed to Wind River Shoshone • The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
Model wearing a vintage ensemble from the Savages Collection • May 1987 • The Face • Carrie Branovan
Parfleche Display • David Cook Galleries
Crow Plateau Painted Parfleche Envelope • Circa 1880 • Toby Herbst Antiques
Words End Sweater • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren
Painted Parfleche • South Dakota State Historical Society
A replicated example of the characteristically bold style of Dakota design • Image courtesy of Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art by Mable Morrow
Runway model for the Savage show • London • October 1981 • Image courtesy of CATWALK Vivienne Westwood : The Complete Collections by Alexander Fury
Words End Sweater • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren
Runway model for the Savage show • London • October 1981 • Image courtesy of Vivienne Westwood by Claire Wilcox
Plains Painted Parfleche Envelope • Possibly attributed to Hidatsa or Mandan • American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Detail of model wearing pieces from the Savage Collection • Image courtesy of Vivienne Westwood by Claire Wilcox
Central Plains Painted Parfleche Flatcase • Circa 1865 • Morning Star Gallery
Words End Leg Warmers • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren
Cheyenne Painted Parfleche Purse • Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
Three Painted Parfleche Envelopes • Late 19th / Early 20th Century • Morgan Oakes Gallery
A replicated example from the Fish Clan of the Fox tribe of a design originally painted on a folded rawhide trunk collected in Tama, Iowa • Image courtesy of Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art by Mable Morrow
Plateau Painted Parfleche Envelope • 19th Century • Image courtesy of 1st Dibs
Blackfoot Piegan Medicine Bags • 1911 • Edward S. Curtis • The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
Pair of Central Plains Painted Parfleche Envelopes • Cheyenne • Circa 1880 • Artsy
Vivienne Westwood posing in the Worlds End Boutique in Chelsea • London • Early 1980’s
Words End Culottes • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren
Crow Plains Painted Parfleche Envelope • 19th Century • Image courtesy of 1st Dibs
Words End Culottes • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren
A replicated example of a Fox design originally painted on a parfleche collected at Black River Falls, Wisconsin • Image courtesy of Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art by Mable Morrow
Worlds End Ensemble • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren • The Costume Institute • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Runway model for the Pirate show • London • 1981 • Image courtesy of Vivienne Westwood by Claire Wilcox
A replicated example of an atypical Assiniboin design originally painted on a buffalo parfleche collected at the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana • Image courtesy of Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art by Mable Morrow
Words End Leg Warmers • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren
Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow wearing Worlds End • 1981 • NME
Pair of Plateau Painted Parfleche Envelopes • Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
Worlds End Ensemble • Spring / Summer 1982 Savage Collection • Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren • Image courtesy of Kerry Taylor Auctions
Runway model for the Savage show • London • October 1981 • Image courtesy of Vivienne Westwood by Claire Wilcox
A replicated example of a design from a “Wakpon” parfleche made by an Oglala woman of the Lakota tribe • Image courtesy of Indian Rawhide | An American Folk Art by Mable Morrow
Runway model for the Savage show • London • October 1981 • Image courtesy of CATWALK Vivienne Westwood : The Complete Collections by Alexander Fury
