Dress ensemble worn by Vivienne Westwood at Investiture

This dress was designed and worn by Dame Vivienne Westwood to the 2006 New Year Honours Investiture Ceremony. Westwood received the damehood from Queen Elizabeth II and was awarded at the investiture ceremony by King Charles III, then Prince of Wales.

Westwood is one of the most important and influential fashion designers of the last 50 years. She is known for making a significant impact on the punk fashion movement of the 1970s and 1980s. She and her partner at the time, Malcolm McLaren, designed clothing for the band 'Sex Pistols', putting their clothes in the public eye. She was involved in multiple political and social movements of the 1970s-2000s, including protesting climate change, capitalism, and advocating for animal rights. She is best known for using fashion to critique modern culture, and for reinventing historic clothing styles and influences in a highly original way.

Westwood worked with the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection in the 1990s. She was commissioned to create a dress inspired by the historic rules of court dress, for the exhibition 'Court Couture' at Kensington Palace in 1992. Her creation is now part of the Collection.

In her designs, Westwood focused on silhouettes that challenged societal expectations. This dress is made from black cotton polka dot woven fabric, draped in Westwood's signature asymmetric style, with a loosely woven black cotton cape and pink striped taffeta underdress. The cape, attached at the shoulders, recalls the regulation court dress of the early 20th century that Westwood knew from working in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection. For the ceremony she styled it with a black hat and tiny silver horns worn on her forehead. She said, 'I'm supposed to be a bit like a Che Guevara – an urban guerrilla, with my cap, this kind of jungle net and a badge for my Active Resistance to Propaganda campaign.'

In response to press questions related to her first investiture ceremony, where she famously twirled in front of strategically positioned photographers who captured the fact that she only wore sheer tights underneath her dress but no other underwear, she is reported to have said: 'Don't ask. It's the same answer. I don't wear them with dresses. When I'm wearing trousers I might - my husband's silk boxers.'