Vivienne Westwood and Virgil Abloh are being celebrated in major retrospective installations — An Active Life at London’s Light House in Soho, and a curated edit of Virgil Abloh: The Codes at ComplexCon Hong Kong.
Two of fashion’s most transformative voices are the subjects of major retrospective installations on opposite ends of the globe this season. In London, Vivienne Westwood — long regarded as the “Queen of Punk” — is being honored at the Light House in Soho with an exhibition timed to the punk scene’s 50th anniversary, while in Hong Kong, the legacy of Virgil Abloh, the late Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director and founder of Off-White, takes shape at ComplexCon.
Westwood’s punk legacy finds its stage in London
Vivienne Westwood: An Active Life, organized by the designer’s son and granddaughter, Joseph Corré and Cora Corré, alongside photographer Ki Price and lifelong Westwood collector Steven Philip, arrives at the Light House with museum archive looks on exquisitely dressed mannequins, more than 100 shoppable vintage pieces curated by Philip, and rare, previously unseen images by Price, available as limited-edition prints. Her career-long commitment to sociopolitical causes — from environmental activism to anti-establishment protest — was as much a part of her identity as the corsets, tartan, and towering platform shoes she sent down the runway, and the show honors both dimensions in equal measure.
Fifty percent of all proceeds benefit The Vivienne Foundation, the late designer’s not-for-profit organization dedicated to combating climate change, stopping war, defending human rights, and protesting capitalism.
Abloh’s archive arrives in Asia
At ComplexCon Hong Kong, Abloh’s archive organization V.A.A. presents a curated edit of Virgil Abloh: The Codes, the first major European exhibition dedicated to his work, which debuted in Paris last September drawing on more than 1,000 objects — including 200 pairs of sneakers — from his personal collection, creative output, and previously unpublished work.
The Hong Kong installation is built around three sections: The Media Lab, designed by architect Rem Koolhaas, which houses hundreds of gigabytes of Abloh’s working design files; the Sneaker Table, which frames his Nike collaborations as a study in design philosophy; and the Archive Table, a display of reference materials and personal objects making their public debut. A gift shop will offer the Air Jordan 1 High OG x V.A.A. and limited-edition merchandise available outside the U.S. for the first time, coinciding with the recent launch of The Virgil Reader Vol. 001.
The Hong Kong stop is part of a broader V.A.A. World’s Fair, a traveling series visiting cities central to Abloh’s trajectory, among them Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London, and Tokyo. Mahfuz Sultan, codirector of Virgil Abloh Archive, said Abloh was present at the very first ComplexCon a decade ago and loved the way the event brought sneakers, fashion, art, and music into the same room. “Hong Kong was one of the first cities to embrace what he was doing. It’s where he opened his first store, and so having the archive there, at ComplexCon in that city, it feels full circle,” Sultan said. “Virgil Abloh Archive is about making Virgil’s work accessible to the people who care about it most, and this is a space where that community comes together.”
“Bringing the Virgil Abloh Archive to ComplexCon Hong Kong gives our audience a rare look at that process,” Bonnie Chan Woo, chief executive officer of Complex China, said. “We’re especially proud to be among the first to bring this archive to life in a tangible way for fans here.”
Vivienne Westwood: An Active Life runs through March 19, 2026, at the Light House, 48 Berwick Street, London.
Virgil Abloh Archive at ComplexCon Hong Kong runs March 21–22, 2026, at AsiaWorld-Expo.
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