Re-Imagining Gender: Rei Kawakubo & Vivienne Westwood

Rei Kawakubo and Vivienne Westwood are widely celebrated as fashion designers who questioned, reimagined and transformed the way we think about fashion.

In particular, their resistance to convention has seen each designer subvert the gendered codes that have long structured the fashion world.

NGV curator Meg Slater leads a conversation with NGV Senior Curator of Fashion and Textiles, Katie Somerville alongside fashion designer and master patternmaker and founder of 1990s label Rude Boy, Glen Rollason, to consider the queerly inflected nature of Kawakubo and Westwood’s approaches to fashion design.

About the Speakers

Glen Rollason, director of Rollason Bowring Design, brings three decades of invaluable fashion industry experience to the forefront. As the head of Australia’s leading pattern making and sample development studio, Glen empowers over 50 of the country’s top designer brands, both global and independent, to thrive. His expertise extends to design consultancy, pattern making, and manufacturing brokerage, providing comprehensive support to his clients. Glen is also an active member of the FashLab advisory board, a creative community dedicated to knowledge sharing and mentorship within the local fashion industry and serves on The Australian Fashion Week advisory committee. In 1999, he was honoured with the MFF Designer of the Year award.

Katie Somerville is the Senior Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Katie has worked with a range of fashion and textiles collections for three decades, including at the National Gallery of Australia and Historic Houses Trust of NSW. She joined the curatorial department at the NGV in 1995, working across both the Australian and International collection. She currently manages the research and development of the Fashion and Textiles collection and the Campbell-Pretty Fashion Research Collection along with the ongoing program of publications and exhibitions for the Fashion and Textiles Department. During her time at the NGV Katie has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions including: Martin Grant (2025), Alexander McQueen, Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022) presented in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture (2017), Making the Australian Quilt:1800-1950 (2016), Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids (2014), Melbourne Now (2013), ManStyle: Men + Fashion (2011), Together Alone: Australian and New Zealand Fashion (2009), and Akira Isogawa: Printemps-Été (2004).

Meg Slater is Curator of International Exhibition Projects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Since 2017, Meg has worked on eight of the NGV’s major international exhibitions, including MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2018; Keith Haring | Jean Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines, 2019/20, Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, 2023; and Yayoi Kusama, 2024/25. Meg was also one of the five curators who organised QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection, 2022. In 2021, Meg completed a Master of Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne with First-Class Honours.

NGV & Midsumma: Queer Histories, Futures & Creativity

Coming together again in 2026, NGV and Midsumma present a series of programs that celebrate queer histories, futures and creativity.

Featuring curator-led tours, conversations and a special edition of NGV Friday Nights, these programs will highlight LGBTQIA+ stories from the early twentieth century through to the present, exploring NGV Collection artworks and the Westwood | Kawakubo and Women Photographers 1900 – 1975: A Legacy of Light exhibitions at NGV International.

For more information visit: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/program/ngv-x-midsumma/