Vivienne Westwood Orb Jewellery, Red Label and Anglomania: A Collector's Guide

This guide reads Westwood through Japan, the country that kept her lines alive longest and in the widest variety. Our argument is that the Japanese archive is not a footnote to London but a parallel history, with its own licensed lines, its own shops and its own heroine. It sits within the larger story told in why the world's treasures came to rest in Japan, and beside our earlier study of Westwood watches and the Swatch orb.

At a glance

How a crown-jewels orb got its ring

The story begins in a gap year. In 1985 and 1986, after her separation from Malcolm McLaren, Westwood's London shop was closed and she worked in Italy, supported by Elio Fiorucci. She was designing a collection on royalty with a futuristic edge. Her son Ben had lent her astronomy magazines with pictures of galaxies and of Saturn and its rings. For a knitted jumper she imagined Prince Charles might wear on a day off, she gathered the insignia of a British prince, including the orb from the crown jewels, and gave the orb a satellite ring.

Carlo D'Amario, her friend and later the company's managing director, saw the design and told her it was her logo. It appeared first on labels, then embroidered on garments and on buttons. The first orb pendant walked in the Harris Tweed show for Autumn/Winter 1987/88, the collection inspired by a schoolgirl Westwood saw on the Tube in a Harris Tweed jacket. The Deep Sky jumper that started it all reached the runway in Time Machine, Autumn/Winter 1988/89.

Accounts differ on the year. The house's own history says the orb was first used in 1986; museum and house accounts agree that it was first seen on the runway, as embroidery, buttons and a pendant, in the 1987 Harris Tweed collection. We print both: 1986 for the logo, 1987 for the runway. The resemblance to the Harris Tweed Authority's own orb was noticed at the time; the Authority later wrote that the two brands went on to collaborate to their mutual benefit.

Reading the lines on the label

Westwood's label history is one of the most varied of any London house, and the label is often the first clue to age. Gold Label was born with the Anglomania collection for Autumn/Winter 1993/94, the season Westwood commissioned her own tartan, MacAndreas, for her husband Andreas Kronthaler. The MAN line launched in Milan in 1996. Anglomania became its own diffusion line in 1998, reworking archive designs from the SEX, Pirate, Mini-Crini and Bondage eras for a younger customer. Red Label, the ready-to-wear line combining Savile Row tailoring with French couture ideas, launched in 1999.

Label Years What it was Example in the house
Worlds End From 1980, the King's Road shop Early collections sold at 430 King's Road a Pirate squiggle-print smock tunic with a Born in England label
Gold Label Autumn/Winter 1993/94 to 2016 The Paris runway line an On Liberty jacket, Autumn/Winter 1994
MAN 1996 to 2016 Menswear, shown in Milan an armour-sleeve wool trench coat
Anglomania From 1998; licensed in Japan from Spring/Summer 2014 Archive-inspired diffusion line a Clint Eastwood bomber with hand-printed flags
Red Label 1999 to 2016 Ready-to-wear, tailoring-led a tartan jacket with orb buttons

In 2016 the house simplified. Gold Label became Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, first shown in Paris for Autumn/Winter 2016, and Red Label and MAN were consolidated into a single mainline. Any piece carrying Red Label or MAN therefore predates that change. The Vivienne Westwood shelf holds pieces from every one of these labels.

Japan's parallel Westwood

Japan met Westwood early. In 1984 she was invited to show her Spring/Summer 1984 Hypnos collection in Tokyo, at Hanae Mori's Best of Five event, alongside Calvin Klein, Claude Montana and Gianfranco Ferré. Her Clint Eastwood collection for Autumn/Winter 1984/85 used Day-Glo patches inspired by Tokyo's neon signs, and her Savage collection of 1982 had already drawn on Japanese flat cutting. The house counts a licensed boutique in Tokyo, opened in the 1990s, as its first outside the United Kingdom.

Behind the shops sat a licensing structure that shaped what Japanese wardrobes hold today. By 2001 the trading house Itochu was Westwood's master licensee in Japan, handling direct imports and domestic licences, with the brand licensed to about ten Japanese companies across fifteen product categories. In 2002 the Kobe company Orrizzonti won a licence to produce Westwood collections for Japan and China, designed to suit local tastes. From Spring/Summer 2005 the Itochu company Raika ran the brand's imports and licences together, and in October 2008 it opened the first standalone MAN shop in Japan, in Omotesando. A womenswear flagship had opened in Aoyama in March 2003, and Ginza Six followed in April 2017.

For a collector the consequence is plain. Japan holds Westwood pieces made for Japan, with Japanese care labels and sizing, alongside imports from London and Milan. Neither is lesser; they are different chapters. We say on every piece which one it is, and we photograph the care label so you can read it yourself.

Nana and the armour ring

No history of Westwood in Japan works without Ai Yazawa. Her manga NANA, serialised from May 2000 to May 2009, follows two young women called Nana who meet on the way to Tokyo. Yazawa drew her characters in real Westwood designs. The first thing one heroine notices about the punk singer Nana Osaki is the armour ring on her finger, the jointed ring that wraps the whole length of a finger like a piece of plate armour.

The series carried Westwood to a generation of Japanese readers who had never seen the King's Road. In 2025, for the manga's twenty-fifth anniversary, the house and Yazawa finally worked together, with a special edition cover showing the two heroines on a Westwood catwalk and a capsule collection. An articulated armour ring in black and silver tone, sized in Japanese ring sizes, is the piece most readers ask about first.

Orb jewellery: how to read a pendant

Orb jewellery is the largest single group of Westwood in the house, and the variations are wide: tiny orbs on fine chains, bas-relief orbs with pavé, hearts with a Saturn ring, pearl strands with an orb clasp. Before you choose, it helps to know what to look at.

  1. The ring around the orb. On a correctly made pendant, the satellite ring is crisp and evenly angled across the sphere, and the cross on top is upright. Soft, blurred or lopsided rings are a reason to look closer.
  2. The stones. Most orbs are set with crystal or coloured stones. Look for even setting and consistent colour across the piece; a single missing stone is a condition note, not a disqualifier.
  3. The back and the tag. In our experience many pendants carry the Vivienne Westwood name on the reverse or on a small chain tag, and the clasp is often marked. A blank back on a model that should be marked is a question.
  4. The chain length. Westwood made the same orb on chains of different lengths, so measure. We give chain length in centimetres on every piece, from about 42 cm chokers to long chains near 80 cm.
  5. The box and pouch. A boxed pendant is welcome but not required. Box alone does not prove anything; the piece does.

Some examples in the house show the range. A Mini Bas Relief orb pendant in silver tone with crystal pavé has the sculpted, coin-like orb. A Balbina pearl orb pendant on a 44 cm chain joins the orb to a pearl. A diamanté heart orb necklace, reference 630203BV, shows the heart variant, and a boxed antique silver-tone orb with red and blue stones shows the darker, older-looking finish. The costume jewellery shelf places them beside Chanel, Dior and other houses.

Westwood orbs are costume jewellery: plated metal and crystal, made to be worn. We grade them for plating wear, stone loss and chain condition, using the letters explained in our guide to Japanese condition ranks, and we photograph the back of every pendant.

Clothes, tartan and the small leather goods

Tartan runs through the archive, and for Anglomania in 1993 Westwood went as far as inventing a clan tartan of her own. In Japan, tartan wallets and bags became everyday Westwood: a Derby long wallet in New Exhibition tartan is a typical example, coated canvas with an orb on the flap.

The clothing is where the line history shows best. A Red Label striped club blazer with crest patch plays the English school uniform; an Anglomania and Lee indigo denim shirt with an embroidered orb shows the diffusion line's collaborations. For the house's punk roots in clothing beside other Japanese and British rebels, our study of Hysteric Glamour, Number (N)ine and Wacko Maria is a natural next read.

Real against copy: what we check on clothing

  • The label and the line agree. A Red Label or MAN label on a piece dated after 2016 is a contradiction to resolve before anything else.
  • Orb buttons and hardware. Orb buttons should be cleanly cast with the ring visible; flat, smeared orbs are a warning.
  • Care labels tell you the chapter. A Japanese care label usually points to a Japan-made or Japan-licensed piece; an Italian or British one to an import. Both are real; they are different.
  • Tartan matching. On tailored pieces, the check should meet at seams and pockets, as it does on good tailoring.

Our authenticity and condition promise applies to every Westwood piece we offer.

The retrospective that came to Tokyo

Vivienne Westwood: 35 Years in Fashion opened at the Mori Arts Center Gallery, on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, on 23 November 2005 and ran to 15 January 2006. It traced her career through more than 500 pieces, among them 150 costumes from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection and Westwood's own, with rare film of interviews and shows.

This guide is for reading the orb, the label and the jewellery. For the story of the shops, the licence and the manga that kept Westwood close to Tokyo, read our companion piece, Vivienne Westwood in Japan: the orb, the armour ring and NANA.

Where the record differs

Beyond the orb's year, one point is worth flagging: the Tokyo licensed boutique is listed by the house in its 1993 to 1999 chapter without a precise year, so we do not give one. We found no record that ties a specific orb pendant model to the 1987 runway piece; we do not speculate.

A correction to the common story: the orb was not designed as a jewellery motif. It was drawn for a knitted jumper, became a logo, and only then became the pendant that most people now picture when they hear the name.

Why Japan kept Westwood close

Westwood put Japan into her clothes in the early 1980s, Japan invited her to Tokyo in 1984, and Japan then built the licensing, the shops and, through one manga, the readership that made her orb an everyday object. A Westwood collection formed in Japan holds all of those chapters at once. Read the label, read the ring around the orb, and the piece will tell you which chapter it belongs to. That is our reading.

Answered plainly

When was the Vivienne Westwood orb created?

It was conceived in Italy in 1985 to 1986 and used as the logo from 1986; it first appeared on the runway in the Autumn/Winter 1987/88 Harris Tweed collection.

What is the difference between Red Label and Gold Label?

Gold Label was the Paris runway line from Autumn/Winter 1993/94; Red Label, from 1999, was the tailoring-led ready-to-wear line. Both ended as names in 2016.

Is Vivienne Westwood orb jewellery real silver?

Most orb pendants are plated costume jewellery with crystals. We state the metal on every piece and never describe plating as solid silver or gold.

Why is there so much Westwood in Japan?

Early Tokyo shows, a long licensing history, dedicated shops in Aoyama, Omotesando and Ginza, and the readership of the manga NANA.

Further reading

Sources

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