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Vivien Westwood dies age 81

Vivien Westwood was one of the greatest fashion designers the UK has ever produced. She died on December 29^th 2022, at the age of 81. While she had a loyal celebrity fan base that included Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and Emma Watson, she originally made her name in the world of punk. She was a true rebel, and that spirit was at the forefront of her fashion brand. She always kept her fashion house financially independent and actively eschewed stock market listings or luxury brand collaborations.

From Derbyshire roots to kinky boots

Westwood was born in a Derbyshire village where her parents were a factory worker and a cotton weaver. The family moved to London when Westwood was a teenager. She trained initially as a primary school teacher, but her restless idealism was looking for another focus. So when she met art student Malcolm McLaren her natural flair for dressmaking found a new outlet.

Shaking up The King’s Road

Westwood and McLaren made clothes that rejected the hippie styling and took inspiration from youth culture’s recent past. They sold their rock ‘n’ roll fashion from a shop unit at 430 King’s Road. In 1974 they changed the shop name to SEX and designed fetish wear that was sold to prostitutes and young pro-punks who took this seriously edgy look out onto the street. Westwood and McClaren enjoyed shocking people, and the range included rubber dresses and spike stilettos.

The birth of punk

In 1976 the shop changed its name to Sedtionaires: Clothes for Heroes. However, the collection remained risqué and included the infamous bondage trousers and other distressed fashion items held together with decorated metal chains and safety pins. Many of the clothes were worn by the Sex Pistols both on and off stage. McLaren had brought the band members together as a way to exploit the protest-based youth culture that was set to explode.

A lasting legacy

Pure punk’s reign did not last long. The Sex Pistols were only together for three years between 1975 and 1978. However, their legacy and the image Westwood created remain in our collective consciousness. It is still possible to go the King’s Road in London and find bin-bag-clad, Mohican sporting fashionistas parading for the tourists. The look is immortalised in popular culture and can even be found at the best PayPal casinos in the UK with online slot games called Punk Rocker and Punk Toilet. Irreverence and shock remain the name of the game.

Always evolving and influencing

Punk may have been absorbed into the mainstream left, but Westwood became interested in subverting the establishment. Along with  McLaren, she created a catwalk collection in 1981 called Pirate. The collection was so named because Westwood said it plundered ideas and colours from other places and periods. With loose-bottomed, wide-striped buccaneer style trousers, oversized shirts and draped sashes, Westwood’s clothes spawned a new era. Welcome to the world of the New Romantics. The look was picked up and championed by the era’s top musical acts, including Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.

The end of an era

Westwood and McLaren’s last collaboration was in 1983. Called Witches, they printed Keith Haring’s graphic images on stretch-fabric bodies and tube skirts. These tight-fitting garments were juxtaposed with oversized garments with enormous shoulder pads and exaggerated sleeves. She extricated herself from what had become a toxic business relationship with McLaren and went on to design in her own right,

Doing it her way

Her was always provocative, and her first solo collection was based on professional footballers’ shirts that feature an extended, exposed jockstrap. This look became popular in London’s gay club scene.

Establishment recognition.

Fast forward to the 1990s, and although often branded ‘uncommercial’, Westwood won Women’s Wear Designer of the Year two years in a row. Her ideas often crossed over into the mainstream, and in 1992 she was awarded an OBE. In 2019 she received the London Design Medal for Life Achievement. Despite being embraced by the establishment, she continued to focus on activism, championing issues like civil liberties, nuclear disarmament and climate change.