Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood DBE RDI (née Swire; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.[6] In 2022, Sky Arts ranked her the 4th most influential artist in Britain of the last 50 years.[7]
Dame
Vivienne Westwood
29 December 2022 (aged 81)
Vivienne Westwood
2, including Joseph Corré
British Fashion Designer of the Year (1990, 1991, 2006)
Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for the boutique that she and Malcolm McLaren ran on King's Road, which became known as Sex. Their ability to synthesize clothing and music shaped the 1970s UK punk scene, which included McLaren's band, the Sex Pistols. She viewed punk as a way of "seeing if one could put a spoke in the system".[8]
Westwood opened four shops in London and eventually expanded throughout Britain and the world, selling a varied range of merchandise, some of which promoted her political causes such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, climate change and civil rights groups.[9][10]
Life and career[edit]
Early years[edit]
Westwood was born at 6, Millbrook in Hollingworth, Cheshire,[11][12] on 8 April 1941.[13][14] She was the daughter of Gordon Swire and Dora Swire (née Ball), who had married two years previously, two weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War.[15] At the time of Vivienne's birth, her father was employed as a storekeeper in an aircraft factory; he had previously worked as a greengrocer.[15]
In 1958, her family moved to Harrow, Greater London. Westwood took a jewelry and silversmith course at the University of Westminster, then known as the Harrow Art School,[16] but left after one term, saying: "I didn't know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world".[17] After taking a job in a factory and studying at a teacher-training college, she became a primary-school teacher. During this period, she created her own jewelry, which she sold at a stall on Portobello Road.[14]
In 1962, she met Derek Westwood, a Hooverfactory apprentice, in Harrow.[18] They married on 21 July 1962; Westwood made her own wedding dress.[18] In 1963, she gave birth to a son, Benjamin.[18]
Malcolm McLaren[edit]
Westwood's marriage to Derek ended after she met Malcolm McLaren. Westwood and McLaren moved to Thurleigh Court in Balham, where their son Joseph Corré was born in 1967.[19] Westwood continued to teach until 1971 and also created clothes which McLaren designed. McLaren became manager of the punk band the Sex Pistols, and subsequently the two garnered attention as the band wore Westwood's and McLaren's designs.[20]
Punk era[edit]
Westwood was one of the architects of the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying "I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way".[18] Westwood's emergence as a designer who made garments that reflected the economic, social, and political contexts of 1970s Britain coincided with a disillusioned youth, who developed a unique style of dress and musical expression which was instantly identifiable through its aesthetic and sound.[21]
Westwood's boutique, originally managed with McLaren, was a meeting place for early members of the London punk scene. The boutique regularly changed names and interior design through the 1970s to fit with collections and design inspirations. It remains in its original location at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea, London (under the name Worlds End since 1979, following a short period of closure in the 1980s) to this day.
McLaren and Westwood were keen entrepreneurs, and their designs sold in their boutique – named Let It Rock, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Sex, and subsequently Seditionares – helped to define and market the punk look at the exact moment that it exploded in popularity on the streets of London.[22] Westwood's designs during the Punk Era and thereafter were informed by historicism; the V&A describing Westwood as "a meticulous researcher".[23] Westwood began challenging gender norms and promoting experimentation in her designs, which at the outset were created in collaboration with McLaren.
Initially, Westwood created garments referencing the dress of the 1950s Teddy Boys, which were worn by McLaren. Upon opening Let It Rock in 1971, the first incarnation of Westwood and McLaren's boutique, early creations for the shop incorporated such influences reminiscent of the youth subculture fashions of the 1950s.[24] Inspired by the rebellious nature of the 1950s youth, Let It Rock referenced the clothing, music, and décor of the immediate postwar era.
In 1972, Let It Rock was refashioned into Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, in homage to the death of James Dean. Though design references for garments retailed under Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die focussed on the rocker aesthetic of the 1960s,[21] the boutique still sold Teddy Boy inspired garments under the Let It Rock label.[25] The new politically leaning design inspirations for Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die were conveyed through Westwood's sleeveless T-shirts, bearing various statements such as ‘PERV’ and ‘ROCK’, created using a combination of safety pins, chicken bones, and glitter glue.
Two years later, in 1974, Westwood and McLaren's boutique was re-modelled, and reopened as Sex. Pieces sold in Sex were intentionally abrasive and challenging, with designs grounded in fetish and sado-masochism, seeking to provoke a comfortable middle class and inspire young punks into political action by challenging the status quo.[26] Garments retailed at Sex included skirts and dresses made from rubber as well as t-shirts with pornographic material printed on them.[27][28] The clothes often had large intentional rips in them and sizeable zippers incorporated into the garments.
Sex became a meeting point at the centre of the punk scene, and transformed into Seditionaries in 1976. Clothing retailed at Seditionaries (Seditionaries: Clothes for Heroes) retained the familiar references of Sex, including historicism, the challenging of gender norms, and fetish.[29] However, Seditionaries pieces were made from different cloths and fibres. The development of Westwood signatures - bondage trousers covered with straps to restrict, ‘unravelling’ loose-knit jumpers made of mohair, and long-sleeved tops fashioned from soft muslins, which featured graphic screen printed designs and fastenings to the sleeves to give the effect of a straight-jacket – during this period quickly became archetypal punk staples.[27]
Westwood also inspired the style of punk icons, such as Viv Albertine, who wrote in her memoir, "Vivienne and Malcolm use clothes to shock, irritate and provoke a reaction but also to inspire change. Mohair jumpers, knitted on big needles, so loosely that you can see all the way through them, T-shirts slashed and written on by hand, seams and labels on the outside, showing the construction of the piece; these attitudes are reflected in the music we make. It's OK to not be perfect, to show the workings of your life and your mind in your songs and your clothes."[30]
Books[edit]
Westwood was also a noted author or co-author of books, such as Fashion in Art: The Second Empire and Impressionism,[95] in which she explored the worlds of fashion and the arts and the links between them.
Vivienne Westwood Opus 2008 limited edition was published for London Fashion Week 2008, documents Westwood's work and is also a unique work of art. The book measures 35.4 by 25.2 inches (90 cm × 64 cm), weighs 44 pounds (20 kg), with a total limited edition of 900. There are 9 different covers and titles each numbered 1 to 100: manifesto, cockroach propaganda, pirate squiggle, propaganda eyes, I am expensive, AR-Vivienne Westwood, innocent, active resistance to propaganda and union jack. The Opus contains 97 large-format Polaroid photographs, each measuring 19.7 by 23.6 inches (50 cm × 60 cm). The subjects include Westwood, her friends and models, including Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Jerry Hall, Georgina May-Jagger, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Tim Burton, Sir Bob Geldof, Jasmine Guinness, and Helena Bonham Carter.[96][97]
Recognition[edit]
In the 1992 Birthday Honours, Westwood was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to fashion design.[98] She received her medal from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace; at the ceremony, Westwood wore nothing but sheer tights with a reinforced bikini top under her skirt, which was later captured by a photographer in the courtyard of the Palace. Westwood later said, "I wished to show off my outfit by twirling the skirt. It did not occur to me that, as the photographers were practically on their knees, the result would be more glamorous than I expected," and added: "I have heard that the picture amused the Queen."[99] Westwood advanced from OBE to Dame Commander of the same Order (DBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours "for services to British fashion",[100] and earned the award for British Designer of the Year on three occasions.
Westwood was awarded a Fellowship at King's College London in 2007,[101] and in 2008 she designed 20 new academic gowns and hoods for King's students to wear at their graduation ceremonies.[102] In 2008, Heriot-Watt University awarded Westwood an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for her contribution to the industry and use of Scottish textiles.[103]
In January 2011, Westwood was featured in a Canadian-made television documentary called Vivienne Westwood's London in which she takes the viewer through her favourite parts of London, including the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Wallace Collection, Whitechapel (accompanied by Sara Stockbridge), Hampton Court, the London Symphony Orchestra, Brixton Market and Electric Avenue, and the National Gallery.
In 2012, Westwood was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires.[104] Also in 2012, Westwood was chosen as one of The New Elizabethans to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Westwood among a group of 60 people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character".[105] A tartan outfit designed by Westwood featured on a commemorative UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail in 2012, celebrating Great British Fashion.[106]
In October 2014, the authorised biography Vivienne Westwood by Ian Kelly was published by Picador. Paul Gorman described it as "sloppy" and "riddled with inaccuracies" on the basis of multiple errors in the book including misspelling the names of popular rock stars "Jimmy" Hendrix and Pete "Townsend" and misidentifying the date of the Sex Pistols' first concert and McLaren's age when he died.[107] Regarding Gorman's claims, Picador publisher Paul Baggaley told The Bookseller: "We always take very seriously any errors that are brought to our attention and, where appropriate, correct them."[108] A spokesman for Macmillan Publishers, which published an Australian edition of the biography, confirmed that the matter was being handled by the publisher's lawyers.[109]
In 2016, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, acquired a Tits t-shirt, designed by McLaren and sold at Seditionaries between 1976 and 1980.[110]
In 2018, a documentary film about Westwood, called Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, premiered.[111] The next year, Isabel Sanches Vegara wrote and Laura Callaghan illustrated Vivienne Westwood, one of the series, Little People, Big Dreams, published by Frances Lincoln Publishing.
In 2022, the documentary ''ART LOVERS UNITE!''[112] starring Vivienne Westwood, directed by Patrick J. Thomas & Dacob, had its world premiere at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival[113] in Australia.
Portraits of Vivienne Westwood[edit]
The National Portrait Gallery holds 18 images of Westwood taken between 1990 and 2014, including those by Mario Testino, Jane Bown, Juergen Teller, Anne-Katrin Purkiss, and Martin Parr.[141]