Vivienne Westwood collaborates with English National Ballet

British designer Vivienne Westwood is teaming up with the English National Ballet in a creative brand campaign for 2013 to help with the rebrand of the dance company. As well as a fresh logo and colour palette, a brand new website and new

production imagery, the English National Ballet has announced that as part of its rebrand that it aims to collaborate with “creative people outside of the ballet world” and the first such partnership is with Vivienne Westwood.

For this season’s brand campaign, Westwood has worked with the ballet company to style the dancers featuring couture garments selected from the fashion houses extensive archive that have been paired with pieces from the latest spring/summer 2013 collection, to continue the idea of mixing “modernity with tradition”.

Commenting on the collaboration, Tamara Rojo, English National Ballet’s Artistic Director, said: “I am thrilled that Vivienne Westwood has agreed to let us use her clothes in our first campaign. It’s a dream come true to be able to collaborate with someone of such stature. Her designs capture the creativity and ambition of our dancers who, in turn, add drama and movement to the clothes.”

Tom Sharp, creative director of The Beautiful Meme, who devised the idea, added: "It is about taking dancers out of tutus and moving away from convention backstage images to show the intensity, creativity and hot bodies of the dancers."

Westwood isn’t the first designer to collaborate with a ballet company, last year Gareth Pugh dressed the Royal Opera House’s ballet, Carbon Ballet, and Kinder Aggugini teamed up with the English National Ballet to redesign the costumes for the late, legendary choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's version of The Rite of Spring.

Image/Video: English National Ballet