Helena Bonham Carter,Kate Moss and Paloma Faith attend the memorial service for fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood at London’s Southwark Cathedral.Credit:AP
The sight of designer Marc Jacobs in a pearl necklace,nightclub promoter Phillip Sallon in boxing gloves and singer Paloma Faith in a copper ballgown might surprise those used to mourning uniforms of black,but even in the front row at funerals,Westwood’s tribe is on trend.
“An increasing number of people believe that we should celebrate a person’s life the way that they lived it,” says Kate Morgan,founder of Tomorrow funerals in Melbourne. “That can be through the way we dress,which can help with the grieving process.”
“It’s becoming more common for guests to be asked to dress in a certain colour. To help people through what can be a difficult time,it’s important to be clear about the dress code on the invitation.”
The dress code for Westwood’s memorial of “if in doubt,dress up” was suitable for a designer who popularised fetish wear at her store Sex and created a wedding dress for Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw in theSex and the Citymovie.
For Kate Moss,that meant a beret and black floral dress,unbuttoned to reveal fishnet stockings and the type of sky-high heels that memorably sent Naomi Campbell tumbling to the runway in 1993. Former model Liberty Ross,a regular on the Westwood catwalk,layered a faux-fur trimmed coat over a low-cut cocktail dress.
“Letting your own creativity come through can be healing,” Morgan says. “It’s about dressing in a way that the person who died would love to welcome you.”