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WITCHES
A/W 1983
For their Witches collection McLaren and Westwood began to conjure up darker spirits. Westwood found 'a magical, esoteric sign language' in the work of the New York graffiti artist Keith Haring. This was printed in fluorescent colours on backgrounds that resembled firework paper.
Witches also featured oversized jackets and coats, double-breasted jackets and huge cream cotton mackintoshes. These were worn with knitted jacquard bodies, tube skirts and pointed hats. The customised trainers had three tongues that emulated the freeze-frame effect of strobe lighting and the jerky sounds of rap music: 'Like sequences of things, where people are dislocated somehow at the same time that they're moving.'
The Witches collection was the final collaboration between McLaren and Westwood. Through their creative partnership, they introduced an entirely new fashion vocabulary which is still influential today.