150916 – Melissa – King St, London WC2E

Ride the Rocking Horse

Since 2008 Melissa and Vivienne Westwood have continued their collaboration of plastic shoes. Reinterpreting various styles from the main line collection, for AW16 saw the launch of the Rocking Horse, inspired by the wooden heeled shoes from the Mini Crini & Harris Tweed Collections of 1987.

As part of the launch in their Flagship Store in Covent Garden, Melissa asked the Vivienne Westwood Visual Merchandising team to create an installation that would be on display throughout September and October 2016 with a party the evening before London fashion Week started. The brief was to create something fun, colourful, interactive and in line with the Vivienne Westwood brand heritage. On the first floor a chandelier of shoes, the merry-go-round, rotated in front of video screens showing catwalk footage from the Harris Tweed Show. In the basement area a carpeted and padded room printed in a collage of patterns from the Collections cosseted a giant rocking horse, with a side saddle (inspired by the image of Sara Stockbridge wearing the Rocking Horse shoes astride a saddle with riding crop) allowed you to ‘ride’ back and forth – Rocking!