Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood Spring 2022 Ready To Wear Collection

Unlike his peers, however, Kronthaler did not only incorporate hoarded/forgotten bolts of fabric (such as the heavy, pale pink silk crepe from the 1990s in look 5’s nomad tabard), but also objects with “a very emotional” meaning.

It was for sure surprising to see Lindsey Wixson wearing a cuddly toy Socrates swaddled to her head with a scrap of cloth, but when Kronthaler explained that the cloth was his baby blanket and Socrates his baby toy, it made more sense: the piece was a sort of letting go.

One thing Krothaler was not clearing out (he said backstage that all of this collection had been sold in the summer) were some of his and his wife’s abiding interests. This collection was evenly distributed between sumptuously slatternly and drunkenly draped wiggle dresses and tumbling gowns that are one of the pair’s specialties.

A men’s pant was cut to reveal the left buttock: when asked why, Krothaler said it was probably because he is right-handed. Similarly tufted shorts for men and women fell away at the rear, unbuttoned.

Punk, medieval, Arabic, ceremonial, animal: apart from Kronthaler’s personal references there seemed to be many flavors more broadly in play, but these had been stewed together so long it was neither always possible nor especially necessary to distinguish them.

There were several men in skirts, which is to be expected here, although one did feel a pang of sympathy for the guy in the boucle budgie-smugglers and crop top: clammy.

Accessories included earrings so oversized gravity pulled them from the wearer’s earlobe mid-walk, a wonderful bell harness, and a baseball cap with little led headlights at the brim which would surely be perfect for the designer’s bicycling life—a wise way to wander when you apparently can no longer buy gas in London.

Andreas and Vivienne would probably say that’s a good thing, and they would probably have a point.