APCOM

The numbers say it all: up to today 20 thousand visitors have admired the extraordinary and original creations of British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood on exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan until the 20th of January.

The retrospective, which opened in September, traces Westwood's 35-year career: from fishnet tights to torn Scottish kilts and billowy white blouses full of holes. Altogether some 150 designs which were curated for the exhibit by London's Victoria and Albert museum: indeed it is the vastest tribute ever paid to a fashion designer.

Among the most eccentric items on exhibit are quirky shoes, like an electric blue pair made up of altogether nine-inch heels on a four-inch platform from which Naomi Campbell famously took a tumble in 1993. Corsets are another of Westwood's leitmotifs: here the item is revisited through the years.

The exhibition, which opened in Milan during the prestigious fashion week in September, has been traveling around the world for four years: before Italy it touched Canberra, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Düsseldorf, Bangkok and San Francisco.

With her eccentric and provocative style, Vivienne Westwood's creations have always blended with the political life of her time and with the transformations taking place in the society. Just a few months ago she used catwalk show in Paris as a platform to protest a British government push to extend the number of days that terrorist suspects can be detained without charges.