She was the anarchist idealist who overthrew the established quo and revolutionized Britain.
She was a would-be revolutionary who despaired over the passivity of youth, fueled by hate of corruption and global injustice.
Vivienne Westwood created punk, dominated high fashion, and established a global empire. She created the New Romantics, sent Naomi Campbell down the catwalk wearing a traffic cone, and met the Queen without her panties.
Westwood viewed fashion as a weapon. She believed clothes made people attractive. The purpose, however, was to shake things up, eliminate dismal uniformity, and create a better world.
The eldest of three children, Vivienne Isabel Swire was born on April 8, 1941, in the village of Tintwistle, Derbyshire.
Her parents from the working class were skilled with their hands. They encouraged her to create, which she did enthusiastically. However, they were perplexed by their daughter’s reading obsession, even paying her to trash her library card.
She possessed amazing self-assurance and believed herself to be an extraordinary craftswoman. At her elementary school in Glossop, she viewed herself as “some sort of champion.” She later remarked, “I could have made a pair of shoes at the age of five.”
In 1958, the family relocated to North London. Vivienne experimented with silversmithing at the local art school for one semester before leaving. She may have been self-assured, but she could not comprehend how a girl from the working class could make a living doing that.
She became a certified elementary school educator before marrying Derek Westwood, a handsome Hoover factory apprentice by day and flamboyant Mod at night. Westwood created her bridal gown and jewelry. The next year, she gave birth to their son.
Then, an accidental encounter transformed everything. Gordon, her brother, invited a 19-year-old art student to her Harrow apartment. He had red hair and talcum powder-whitened skin. Malcolm McLaren was a self-proclaimed genius and the godfather of punk.
Thus began one of the greatest creative relationships in Britain. They moved into a modest flat in Clapham, had a child, and initiated a cultural revolution that shook and occasionally terrified the world.
McLaren was unattainable. His mother was a sex worker, and his eccentric grandmother raised him with the credo “to be wicked is to be good, and to be good is merely dull.”
He was a peacock, set on blinding small people with his intellect, insulting an older generation he despised, and demeaning everyone but himself – Vivienne in particular.
He took six days to visit her in the hospital following the birth of his baby, refused to be referred to as “Dad,” and threatened to give the child to Barnardo when requested to help out. Westwood escaped to a campsite in Wales while he ran amok in London and wed another art student.
However, attraction conquered all obstacles. Her childhood had been joyful, but culturally barren. McLaren was a creative awakening; he introduced her to art and music and helped her convert “from a dolly bird into a sophisticated, self-assured dresser.” Westwood restored the friendship, artistically flourished, and simply ignored the abuse.
Then the Sex Pistols appeared, spitting at the 1970s. McLaren embraced them as a hostile jab at the hippie movement he despised. Westwood launched a store on King’s Road, evoking the aesthetic made famous by the Pistols. The startled world exclaimed, “Punk!”
She originally named the shop “Let It Rock,” but later changed it to “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die.” Finally, it was renamed simply “SEX”; the enormous pink sign over the entrance ensured that only the brave entered.
Within, the personnel was frightening. Chrissie Hyde, Toyah Wilcox, and, most frightening of all, “Jordan”: a lady who obtained an Arts Council funding to be her indomitable self.
The clothing was unlike anything else. They were radical and independent, snubbing rival street trends such as flower power, Teddy Boy, and Mod.
It was equal parts anthropology and fashion. She explained that Bondage pants and Swastika jackets were “sexuality converted into fetishized fashion.” She described it as “the personification of youth’s presumption of immortality.”
Westwood’s parents despised Malcolm and were astonished; yet, they gave her money to get started and provided practical assistance while “our Vivienne” packed the racks with studs, chains, and nip-zips.
The latex negligee, spiked hair, stilettos, and obscene T-shirt worn by Westwood halted traffic. She was having a great time and felt like an “extraterrestrial princess.”
Later, McLaren would claim that he was a “con man,” a Svengali who transformed popular culture into a marketing gimmick. Westwood saw the movement as a countercultural youth rebellion against the corruption of the old world order.
She sincerely believed that punk was more than a fashion trend. The objective of the political movement was a revolution. Westwood was dismayed when the youth showed little inclination to cease spitting and construct barricades.
Both she and the lead vocalist of Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten, claimed to have inspired the concept and title of Anarchy In The UK. But what irritated her was that the guitarist with spiky hair had missed the point.
The clothing and music were intended to convey fury and inspire transformation. The youth, however, just disregarded global injustice, inserted safety pins into their noses, and danced to the music. While Westwood and McLaren were revolutionaries in spirit, it never occurred. Westwood experienced disappointment, was disillusioned, and eventually drifted away.
Instead, she used her provocative concepts to storm the London and Paris catwalks. Working alone on a little sewing machine in her living room, Westwood assembled the garment using her own body as a pattern.
Gary Ness, a Canadian art historian, intellectually motivated her to investigate the history of fashion, rewrite it with vengeance, and dare the world of haute-couture to reject her. She dressed models in Harris Tweed, delicate knitting, “mini-crisis,” and corsets that almost reached their chins.
Russell Harty, a fellow guest, did not help matters by describing one female as a “walking chip store.” The Pistols also scoffed at her, accusing her of forsaking punk and designing “posh dresses for Ascot.”
It wasn’t easy; she came perilously near bankruptcy on multiple occasions, but the fashion industry came to adore her. She collaborated with McLaren to create iconic collections such as Pirate, Savages, and Nostalgia of Mud. And after he left, she continued on her own, launching New Romanticism with establishment-mocking designs. The establishment went wild for it.
Ultimately, she amassed a fortune. In less time than it takes to hard boil an egg, one Parisian fashion show displayed garments valued at more than one million pounds. When Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City desired a wedding dress, she looked to Westwood. The woman who managed a store on King’s Road had become a global phenomenon.
Alongside Armani, Lagerfeld, and Saint Laurent, Women’s Wear Daily ranked her as one of the top six designers of the twentieth century in 1989; she was the only woman on the list. She stated, “From my perspective, it was a statement of fact.” When Naomi Campbell collapsed on the catwalk while wearing purple nine-inch platforms, the shoes immediately flew off the shelves.
Success did not mean that Westwood had given up on revolution. Her art was deeply political and had a cause. She attired models as punkified debutantes as a snub to the ruling classes. Her attire subverted the fashions to which women were previously subjected. She created T-shirts with offensive political statements and sold them for a fee.
Westwood despised Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher vehemently and devoted her life to promoting human liberty, eliminating nuclear weapons, and combating the issue of climate change.
She sponsored Aids Research, PETA, and Oxfam, donated hundreds of thousands to the Green Party, and visited Julian Assange frequently throughout his seven-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy. She even parked a white tank in front of David Cameron’s residence to protest fracking.
Westwood, who received an OBE in 1992, appeared sans underwear and gave photographers the shock of their life as she twirled. If Her Majesty was not amused, she did not show it, and a few years later, when the famed rebel became a Dame, Westwood was back at the Palace.
In 1992, Westwood remarried, this time to a fashion student from Austria who was half her age. Andreas Kronthaler was calm and supportive, the exact opposite of McLaren. The pair forged a new creative partnership, working from Westwood’s sparse, ex-council flat for several years.
According to Westwood, her favorite quote is by Aldous Huxley, but it has been credited to Bertrand Russell. He stated, “Orthodoxy is the tomb of intelligence.” The King’s Road shop she opened is still operational. In honor of an icon committed to waging war against conformity, it is currently known as World’s End and sells archival designs and slogan T-shirts.
Certainly, this was accomplished by the godmother of punk, empress of the world fashion, and Dame of the British Empire.
