“Punk” and “designer” aren’t typically terms that most would put together, nonetheless dare try, but Vivienne Westwood was no average thinker. From her early career vision to a lasting legacy established in her late life, Westwood was one of the inventors of modern fashion, being primarily responsible for bringing punk and new-wave styles into the mainstream.
Moreover, as both a political and environmental activist and advocate for global human rights and fashion consciousness, she was decades- maybe even centuries- ahead of her time, and is still changing narratives today.
Read about her life and legacy in the latest.
Ahead of Her Time
After working for years as a schoolteacher and self-taught designer from a working-class family, Vivienne Westwood was inspired to start her fashion career by none other than passion and the rise of punk.
It all started with a collection she created for art student Malcolm McLaren’s fashion house in London. Between McLaren’s love for punk music and the new age of design and Vivenne’s passion for unconventional thinking and a wide array of outside-the-box concepts, the two strove to drill a punk emphasis into rising fashion.
They worked as a professional team for a short period before becoming a couple, the start of a relationship during which they seemed inseparable and unstoppable. Initially, they operated Let It Rock, a Chelsea shop selling secondhand 1950s vintage clothing and McLaren’s rock-and-roll record collection, and of course, Westwood’s own designs.
The die-hard punk community and existing fans of those like Westwood, McLaren, and the bands McLaren managed during his time- like the Sex Pistols and New York Dolls- found themselves immediately drawn to Westwood’s new-age style.
Over those tireless years, Westwood remained hard at work in her fashion career, slowly but surely becoming a household name. Finally, in 1981, she and McLaren staged Pirates, their first commercial ready-to-wear collection.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Behind the scenes, however, even though business was good for the rising couple, it was also tainted by their public image.
Vivienne was widely frowned upon and disregarded by the general fashion community, and McLaren’s reputation was receding. In the blink of an eye, his career seemed to turn from entrepreneurship to exploitation. More importantly, his neglect of his and Westwood’s son and the need for control over Vivienne’s career influenced their professional and romantic relationships.
As a result, Westwood eventually broke things off with McLaren, but this didn’t stop her from continuing to produce collections and expand her creative vision. For practical reasons, Westwood and McLaren remained professional partners for an additional five years while Westwood continued to establish her identity as a leading independent designer and navigate the resulting publicity of it all.
It was then that she felt her career was truly taking off, especially as she debuted her collection Punkature, a play on words combining punk and couture. She described the period as the first time she felt like a real designer and more than “just an interpreter of Malcolm’s ideas.”
Reinventing High Fashion
Now that she had finally broken away from her toxic work relationship with Malcolm, opportunities started pouring in for Westwood. Collection after collection, she continued to make a unique name for herself and expand her brand like no other independent designer.
Marking Westwood’s growing international reputation, her Hypnos collection debuted in the autumn of 1983. It immediately earned a place at Tokyo’s Best of Five global fashion awards. Then came The Mini-Crini collection (Spring/Summer 1985), which Vivienne and many respective designers described as a significant shift in her career towards tailoring and “things that fitted” – and a more deliberate focus on reworking ideas taken from the historical dress. And in the later 80s, the designer began to showcase corsets as outerwear, a trend that we still see populating the streets of major fashion capitols today.
Westwood’s intention in fashion was clear: she designed to represent the importance of the past while nodding toward the future. Her vision for the industry perfectly encompassed a concept that was much needed in the modern world.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Unfortunately for Westwood, however, it would still be decades before the fashion scene truly accepted her as a revolutionary designer. Instead, fellow designers and media outlets deemed her “uncommercial” and “too provocative.”
Some even went as far as to stage embarrassing interviews and intentionally humiliated Westwood in the public eye. In a 1988 BBC interview on Wogan with Sue Lawley, Vivienne was invited to showcase a portion of her collection Time Machine on live television, during which the audience was passively encouraged to laugh while the other guests mocked the designs and models as they walked.
Though the criticism didn’t stop, neither did she.
For the next two decades, Westwood created 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, which Westwood incorporated under elaborate dresses and miniskirts.
From there, she only expanded. Independently, Westwood built her fashion empire, operating numerous boutiques and producing two menswear and three women’s wear collections annually. Not to mention bridal clothes, jewelry, shoes, eyewear, cosmetics, and perfumes.
Westwood was finally awarded for her perseverance in the industry when 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.
If anything, Westwood was and is a prime example of the blood, sweat, and tears that must go into a successful fashion career.
A Modern Revolution in Style
On December 29, 2022, Dame Westwood passed away peacefully in Clapham, South London, surrounded by her family. The tragic event was confirmed by one of her representatives, and announced by her eponymous fashion house the same day. The news was mourned by millions across the globe.
On February 16, Vivienne’s family and friends came together at the Southwark Cathedral in London for her memorial service, which dozens of her dedicated admirers attended, including Lady Amelia Windsor, a member of the British royal family.
The invitation to the memorial service included commentary from the designer herself: “When in doubt, dress up!”
PHOTO: BERESFORD HODGE/EPA, SHUTTERSTOCK
From the pulpit, actress Helena Bonham Carter gave a heartfelt eulogy, asking, “How can I possibly chart the cultural impact of one of this country’s greatest designers?”
Westwood’s dazzling legacy proved moving for millions of names in the fashion industry, including aspiring designers and existing icons. Without her, fashion would never have seen the revolution it’s seen today and is still experiencing as the seasons go by.
By: Mackenzie Ostrowski
“My clothes have a story. They have an identity. They have a character and a purpose. That’s why they become classics. Because they keep on telling a story. They are still telling it.”– Vivienne Westwood
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