The British luxury brand Vivienne Westwood designed the costumes for the Amfar gala, which took place on Sunday, August 24th. A total of around 400 top -class personalities from art, culture, politics and business came together in the Salzburg residence. The topic was Hugo from Hoffmansthal’s “everyone”, which was listed as part of the Salzburg Festival.
In addition, creative director Andreas Kronthaler once converted from opera singer: inside and actor: Costumes carried inside from the costume archive of the Salzburg Festival into new creations. The costumes were taken apart, combined, newly sewn and mixed with pieces from current collections, “to tell a new story in the unmistakable style of the house,” said a press release.
“Salzburg has a special meaning for Vivienne and me, and Vivienne Westwood feels honored to be part of the Amfar gala, which takes place here for the first time here in Austria. In cooperation with the fantastic costume department of the Salzburg Festival, we designed costumes for this performance. Collecting.
Figures and creations
The costumes represented the topics of the play: life and death, possession and loss, power and humility, and told the history of the motifs of the piece and the figures found in it.
The figure of the Buhlschaft appeared (unlike in the original) three times on stage to symbolize its transformation and the past, present and future. Three red dresses show the different phases: a light red-rosa chiffon dress over a classic Vivienne Westwood corset is a playful variant, with pearl decorations from the archive and a Westwood butterfly motif. For this purpose, two original dresses from the Salzburg costume archive were combined.
A second red dress is elegant and consists of a pearl -occupied bodice and a long sequin skirt with fringe hem, which also emerged from the combination of two pieces from the archive.
The third dress that symbolizes the vision is a classic Vivienne Westwood “Bird of Paradise” dress made of red silk tap with voluminous sleeves and the classic silhouette of the house. Decorative decorations that come from an original costume were integrated into the new romantic Westwood design.
Original dresses were also used for the table covers: for a look, two original dresses from the Salzburg costume archive were combined into a dramatic combined on a corset structure with an overlapping, exaggerated shot at the front. It has overlayed sleeves in the Elisabethan style, a classic Westwood silhouette and a falling black feather skirt.
The second look is a dress inspired by the 1950s, which was created on the basis of a simple black Taffel ball dress from the Salzburg Theater Archive, revised with tulle layers and decorated with oversized crystal motifs and huge embroidered flowers.
The figure of death wore a black corset dress with pearl -pounded shoulder caps and fringed sleeves that fall down at the front and end in a long taded towing. Various, combined and newly sewn for this creation.
After the performance, the 18 costumes together with other articles were auctioned for a good cause. Overall, over half a million euros came together.