Husband's Paris catwalk love letter to 'Queen of Punk' Westwood

Designer Andreas Kronthaler made a touching declaration of love to his wife Vivienne Westwood at their label's storming Paris fashion show Saturday. The flamboyant Austrian creator -- who many including himself believe is the basis for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's 2009 fashion satire "Bruno" -- pulled out all the stops in a joyous romp of a collection that put his spin on the Queen of Punk's iconoclastic career.

"I don't like looking back, it's not my way," Kronthaler, who took the reins of the brand two years ago, told AFP. "But looking at our time together and how many things she has inspired in me and taught me... I just thought, how wonderful." His notes for the show was a love letter to his wife, citing her golden rule, "When in doubt, dress up!" "One should never see the brain working in what you wear, and one dresses to be eventually naked... These mantras of yours and so much more became part of my life and work," he wrote.

"I still think to this day you are the best dressed woman in any room. Love you forever," said the designer who met Westwood as a student when he was 25 and she 50. Westwood, now 76, cheered her husband -- who she has called "the world's greatest designer" -- after the show along with American actress Rose McGowan, who helped launch the #MeToo movement accusing the disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape.

Impossibly high platform boots

"That is what (fashion) should be. It was great," she told AFP. The collection ranged over Westwood's career from the 1970s with lots of feathers and frills to counter its gender fluid side, with three male go-go dancers in impossibly high platform boots and eight male models walking the catwalk along with 20 women.

Kronthaler said he copied two pieces in the collection, a mohair punk sweater that Westwood knitted for herself -- "which says so much about you, and the other is the catsuit which you used to wear when I first met you." Meanwhile, French designer Veronique Leroy had earlier shown her collection on the screen of a Champs Elysees cinema. She told AFP her wool-rich autumn-winter range that featured Harris tweed coats and jackets was inspired by country weekends and that she shot the film in rural Burgundy.

"I have been thinking of showing my work for ages in another way other than on the catwalk," she said. "I said to myself I just can't go on doing the same repetition thing... and in the end I think we showed the clothes and how I came with them better than we could have in a show." (AFP)

Photos: Vivienne Westwood AW18 Catwalk Pictures