A collection of Vivienne Westwood clothing piqued the interest of Antiques Roadshow expert Claire Tole-Moir when she joined the team at Crystal Palace, London, back in October 2023.
In the instalment, which is airing once again this weekend, Tole-Moir welcomes a guest and an accompanying model as she gets the unique chance to ruffle through some historic fashion masterpieces.
However, despite slapping a jaw-dropping valuation on the collection, the owner reveals the heartwarming reason why he wouldn’t be parting ways.
“Well, this is a fantastic outfit, super flamboyant,” Tole-Moir began. “It’s got to be the late, great Vivienne Westwood!
“Tell me a little bit about this and what you’ve bought here today,” she teed up.
The owner explained: “So this is from the last collection that Vivienne had any input into before she died with her husband Andreas [Kronthaler].
BBC Antiques Roadshow: Claire Tole-Moir was the expert on hand
BBC
“So I thought I’d wear everything that’s modern and bring to show you my collection of things dating back to about 1980.”
The clothing was draped over the owner, the model, and an adjacent table.
Tole-Moir weighed in: “So if we just get our model in, basically sporting everything from the Pirates collection, which was launched in 1981 when Vivienne Westwood created World’s End, which was a boutique on the King’s Road here in London.
“We’ve got these asymmetric pirate shirts, we’ve got scarves, bicorn hats, and of course pirate boots.
BBC Antiques Roadshow: Claire Tole-Moir enlisted the help of a model
BBC
“They’ve got this squiggle motif, which really is legendary. So tell me, did you wear a certain combination, or did you wear them all in one go?”
The owner embraced the clothing’s eccentricity, replying: “I was all for wearing everything at once.
“I’m from Birmingham originally and I used to come down on the coach, it was £10, I would save up my money for weeks and weeks and buy a couple of things a month and gradually put a look together.
“This pirate look, it was very much a status symbol because Vivienne was dressing the alternative people at the time – the punks, the LGBTQ community.
“She almost gave us an identity. She almost gave us a uniform for a tribe of people that up until that point had been excluded, and this is one of the first looks that stands the test of time to this day.”
Tole-Moir was in agreement. “It does, and that was the whole point of the Pirate collection, it was about being unisex, it was about mixing fabrics and colours and motifs.”
She continued: “So it’s great to hear that you mixed and matched them because that’s actually what she did on her catwalks. She let her models choose their own ensembles, and they would come out and twirl and do whatever they wanted, basically. Total pioneer, really revolutionary.”
Turning her attention to the items that weren’t being worn, she added: “I see you’ve got some other things as well. 1987 Harris Tweed jacket. This was based on uniforms worn at a private school, and of course, we have the Harris tweed crown. This was actually based on the Coronation crown.
BBC Antiques Roadshow: Claire Tole-Moir provided the valuation
BBC
“And then these jeans from the same collection, which have this Saturn orb emblem that she adopted at this time and then used throughout her career.”
As ever, the subject of money reared its head as Tole-Moir explained: “In terms of value, if you were to take all of this to auction, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got £10,000-15,000.”
Despite gasps emerging from the surrounding crowd, the owner’s bond with the clothing meant he wasn’t going to sell.
“It’s not going to auction because I still wear it,” he admitted.
And Tole-Moir concurred: “I didn’t think so! Well, you’ve kept it in great condition, and you’ve had a lot of fun wearing and I think that’s what it was created for.”
