Within the confines on HMP Belmarsh today, four guests and two witnesses gathered to watch the nuptials of Julian Assange and Stella Moris. The couple, despite clearly testing circumstances, dressed the part in Vivienne Westwood couture.
Making her way into the prison, Moris looked a spectacle in the custom lilac duchess satin corseted frock, finished with roses sewn into the bodice. It came with a statement veil trailing on the floor, complete with colourful embroidered messages from friends and family who could not attend.
For the groom, and his two boys Max and Gabriel, Westwood provided hand-crafted kilts in Culloden Ancient tartan which feature shocks of purple and yellow. As no contact was allowed for fittings, measurements for Assange’s waistcoat, jacket and kilt were taken by calculating lengths of a sheet of paper.
Assange, who founded WikiLeaks which published sensitive information around the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, has been held in the high-security prison since 2019. He continues to fight extradition to the US where he is wanted at the appeal of the High Court.
He met Moris, a South African lawyer now committed to freedom-of-information campaigning, in 2011 while he was living in the Ecuadorian embassy. In the years that have passed their relationship has blossomed from Moris assisting in Assange’s legal team to being the parents of two children.
The long awaited wedding was executed in high style thanks to Westwood, who has been a long and vocal supporter of Assange’s case. “To me, Julian is a pure soul and a freedom fighter,” the designer said in a statement today.
“Julian published the collateral murder video released to him by Chelsea Manning. The greatest threat the US faced to its credibility,” Westwood continued. “We are a global war economy and the authorities have held and trapped Julian by laws which have avoided all due process.”
Moris may not have expected a wedding dress designed by the woman who infamously made Carrie Bradshaw’s in Sex and the City, but as eyes are drawn to Assange once again, she will no doubt be hoping it will engage others to join the fight to free her husband.
