Her visionary concept has always inspired me since I was a teenager, but I never ventured into the punk fashion domain, I wasn’t daring enough, how I would change that now if I had the chance! Unfortunately I became a traditionalist rather than inventing my own persona, which to be honest I regret now. I think I secretly wanted the radical hair, I didn’t colour it but I do remember having a shaved head not completely but it was spikey on top, I loved it at the time I think my friends and family thought I was bonkers! I also had an acid perm cut into a bob which was an experience I won’t dwell on but I did like that as well!
Fig 1: Image: My image, Street Art, Glossop
Fig 2: Image taken from: https://www.viviennewestwood.com/en/collections/vivienne-westwood/aw2324-campaign/
Vivienne Westwood, in full Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood, née Vivienne Isabel Swire she originally came from Glossop, nearly 7 miles from Hyde. (08 April 1941-29 December 2022, London). Westwood was a schoolteacher before she met and married Derek Westwood in 1962 (divorced 1965).
She was a British fashion designer, who was known for her provocative clothing. She was a self-taught designer, who, in 1965 met and moved in with Malcolm McLaren, the future manager of the punk band the Sex Pistols. Along with her partner, Malcolm McLaren she was very much influenced by the 1970’s punk music scene which inspired and allowed her and McLaren to grow their fashion empire.
They began with a stall called Let It Rock, which sold second-hand 1950’s vintage clothing alongside McLaren’s rock-and-roll record collection. Vivienne Westwood created clothing designs that were based around his provocative ideas, by customizing T-shirts, that had “shocking anti-establishment slogans and graphics, and their bondage trousers—black pants featuring straps inspired by sadomasochistic costume, they flew out of the London shop of which the couple became proprietors in 1971.”
Their boutique was named “Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die; Sex; and finally Seditionaries—was a youth fashion mecca.” Its also interesting to note “their erotically charged fashion image enraged Britain’s right-wing press..” Not long after the couple would stage “Pirates, their first commercial ready-to-wear collection..” They ended their personal relationship in 1981, but continued as professional partners for five more years before Westwood would quickly “establish her identity as a leading independent designer.” This was an amazing achievement, to think she hadn’t studied fashion design, she was a self-taught fashion designer.
Fig 3: Image taken from: https://blog.viviennewestwood.com/the-story-so-far/
Westwood’s statement design the“mini-crini” was “a thigh-grazing crinoline produced in both cotton and tweed that debuted as part of her spring-summer 1985 collection—marked a turning point. ”
She would, for the next twenty years create many “collections that took inspiration from classical sources, notably the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher, and Thomas Gainsborough, as well as historical British dress, including the 19th-century bustle, which Westwood incorporated under elaborate knitwear dresses and tartan miniskirts.”
I love this idea and many of the looks she created were stunning and thought provoking.
Her career as an independent fashion designer made her legendary. “Westwood built her own eponymous mini fashion empire, operating numerous boutiques and producing two menswear and three women’s wear collections annually as well as bridal clothes, shoes, hosiery, eyewear, scarves, ties, knitwear, cosmetics, and perfumes.
On April 1, 2004, a retrospective devoted to her creations opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion” was the largest exhibition the museum had ever dedicated to a British designer. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992 and advanced to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2006.”
Online Source:
Rachel Bakewell 