Stumbling across that archive quite recently was a jaw dropping experience.
Take another deep breath, because that was just the start.
Days after Grant and I spoke, she was busy unearthing more.
Christy Turlington walks the Vivienne Westwood fall 1994 runway
But lets pull up for a second.
I have my own history with Corniche.
(I saved the money to buy it by stacking shelves in a supermarket after school.)
The front view of a Kansai jacket.
Ive been known to cry when I find something I really love, she says, laughing.
Why did you start selling your archive now, Nina?
It just feels like the right time.
The back view of a Kansai jacket.
I cant really explain it.
Theres not a plan.
There has never really been a plan.
This black Alexander McQueen dress from the fall 1997 ready-to-wear collection is being sold in the sale.
I have never bought anything just to make money.
I am quite proud to have gone down that routeand survived.
I am very emotional about clothes.
So, yes, I am emotional about what I sell.
Like John Flett: I remember seeing him selling his collections at Olympia in London.
[Olympia was an exhibition space where the designerjeunesse doreesold their wares back in the day.]
He was so clever.
I also found some Copperwheat Blundell jackets.
I could put it in the store now and it would look right.
Thats the important thing about buying a collection: Finding that timelessness.
I had to make my own dress.
This outfit stopped the traffic.
It was quite something for the time.
So you were designing before you were retailing?
I found some of my original designs made in the 70s and they were actually really good!
I would take the train to London to the Alma leather warehouse.
I loved walking in there and seeing all the bales of leather in mindblowing colors for the time.
And I have bales of cloth lying around from the 70s including Hurel jersey.
The front view of a Kansai jacket.
The back view of a Kansai jacket.
How did you go from doing your made-to-measure to selling designer clothing?
All the guys who ran the jeans stores in Edinburgh came by and just laughed.
But I have always said if theyre laughing at our windows we are doing something right.
How was the reaction to what you were doing?
Selling all of these incredibly avant garde designers in what was then a pretty conservative city?
Well, it was slow, very slow!
We are pretty ageless.
Very sexy and fitted, which is much more my style.
But at the same time we had someone like Katharine Hamnett, who was an incredible seller.
It went down like a ton of bricks.
Afterwards, they left in their Porsches and I walked up to the bar Buster Browns.
Looking back to that time, I get the feeling you were seeking out newness all the time.
Yes, the hunt, youre absolutely right.
We had Olympia in the 80s, but there is nothing like that now.
Just private showrooms where everything is more commercial.
I think I found Bodymap at Olympia; I thought it was fantastic.
Talk to me about her.
I did an order but never got it!
Vivienne was a genius.
She didnt compromise, thats for sure.
The enamel buttons…Ive rarely seen those.
There is nothing I would change about it.
It is a stunner.
It is like I grew up with her.
And I loved the chaos of the whole thing.
This black Alexander McQueen dress from the fall 1997 ready-to-wear collection is being sold in the sale.
And you were pretty early with McQueen…..
I wouldnt have changed that time for anything.
I just loved it.
His clothes just sum it up.
McQueen shows were theater.
You felt like youd seen something special.
I didnt do a whole lot of McQueen though.
It was a difficult cut.
You needed a long body.
It wasnt the easiest.
But that season [fall 1997] of the Prince of Wales checks with the roses….
It was a bit like looking at art, wasnt it?
The same way you could look at a painting and just know.
Speaking of what you love: Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garcons.
Rei would be standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at the showroom.
I loved Comme, absolutely loved it.
I think it is even more clever than anything Westwood has ever done.
To get that figure-hugging shape and to have that fabric popping up…. Its engineering, absolutely.
This jacket is probably my favorite of what we are selling from the archive.
And I have always felt good in a Comme jacket.
What about the designers youre selling now?
Who are the future stars of the archive?
Theres heart and soul in it.
I am a huge fan; theres always a lovely story.
Every piece is different.
Theyre young, but if theyd been around in the 80s the clothes would have fit right in here.
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