Dame Vivienne Westwood has designed the wedding attire for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange as he married fiancée Stella Moris on Wednesday.
The iconic fashion designer has been a long-time supporter of Assange, who has been held in the high-security Belmarsh Prison for the last three years as he fights extradition to the US.
Assange, 50, married Moris in the south-east London prison in a small ceremony. The couple were only allowed to have four guests and two witnesses, as well as two security guards present.
Moris, who has two children with the activist, wrote in an op-ed ahead of the wedding that while the wedding is a “declaration of love and resilience”, it is “not the wedding we should be having”.
She said of the dress designed by Westwood and husband Andreas Kronthaler: “I am honoured to be wearing their beautiful creation. It is a symbol our love and defiance in the face of this cruel situation.”
Moris wore the couture corseted coat dress in lilac duchess satin, paired with purple mock croc platform heels and a tulle veil that featured embroidered messaged from the couple’s friends and family.
The dress also featured a personal note from Westwood embroidered into the coat and a rose sewn into the bodice of the dress.
Westwood, 80, also designed a kilt for Assange, whose parents are of Scottish heritage. He also wore a waistcoat jacket and kilt, hand-crafted in Culloden Ancient tartan, and the couple’s children wore matching kilts.
In 2019, Assange was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he stayed for seven years, and relocated to Belmarsh.
The High Court ruled in December that he can be extradited from the UK to the US, following an appeal from the US against a previous ruling that he could not be extradited due to concerns over his mental health.
Assange is currently fighting the ruling. In the US, he faces charges related to the publication of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011.
Moris wrote in The Guardian that the couple were denied a photographer at their wedding and accused the prison of wanting Assange “to remain invisible to the public at all costs, even on his wedding day, and especially on his wedding day”.
Westwood has previously taken part in protests over Assange’s potential extradition, most recently in July 2020.
At the time, the designer wore a bright yellow suit to represent a canary and locked herself in a birdcage during a demonstration outside the Old Bailey in London, where crowds chanted: “Free Julian Assange.”
According to Westwood, the cage represented “the space Julian will inhabit if he is extradited to the US”, adding that he is symbolised “what happens to you if you dare to expose the truth”.
She addressed the protesters with a megaphone and called for his immediate release, stating: “This is the most important thing in the world. Don’t extradite Assange – it’s a stitch-up.”
