Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI, (born 8 April, 1941) is an English fashion designer largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

She is linked with the Sex Pistols via Malcolm McLaren and their SEX boutique on Kings Road, Chelsea in London during the 1970s. The shop was at 430 Kings Road.

Biography

Early life

Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in the village of Tintwistle in Glossop, Cheshire (now in the county of Derbyshire) on April 8 1941, daughter of Dora (Ball) and Gordon Swire, a storekeeper. She attended Glssop Grammar School and studied at the Harrow School of Art (later to become the University of Westminster) for one term. Vivienne went on to attend Trent Park College (later to become the Middlesex University) and later taught at a primary school in North London. She loved teaching.

Malcolm McLaren

Vivienne's first husband was Derek Westwood, with whom she had one child, Ben. Their marriage lasted three years. She then met Malcolm McLaren, later known for being the manager for punk band The Sex Pistols. The two lived in a council flat in Clapham and had a son named Joseph. Westwood continued to teach until 1971, when Malcolm decided to open a shop, Let It Rock (also known as Sex, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Seditionaries) where Westwood began to sell her outrageous designs. During this period, Westwood, McLaren, and artist Jamie Reid were influenced by the Situationists. She still owns the shop, which is at 430 King's Road, and sells her Anglomania label from there. The shop is now known as World's End.

Punk

The punk style began to gain notoriety when the Sex Pistols wore clothes from Westwood and McLaren's shop at their first gig. The "punk style" included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars that were used as jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair. The inclusion of more traditional elements of British design, such as tartan fabric, amongst the more unusual elements of her style only served to make the overall effect of her designs more shocking.

Together, Westwood and McLaren revolutionised fashion, and the impact is still felt today. She has only a few exclusive shops, including three in London, two in Manchester, and one each in Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds. A ninth opened in FH Mall, Nottingham on 20th March 2008. Westwood worked historical factors into her collection by using historical 17th-18th century original cutting principles and modernising them. This collection was about 'gold and treasure, adventure and exploration'. Other influences in Westwood's work have included ethnic Peruvian influence, feminine figure, velvet and knitwear. A historical influence has always shown in her work.

Artistic collections

The first major retrospective of her work was shown in 2004–5 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the National Gallery of Australia. The exhibition is made up of around 145 complete outfits, grouped into the themes which have dominated her work from the early 1970s to the present day and were drawn from her own personal archive and the V&A's extensive collection. They range from early Punk garments to glamorous 'historical' evening gowns. The retrospective is touring the world and is set to continue until 2008.

Her Autumn/Winter 2005/06 Propaganda Collection drew inspiration from her archive, reinterpreting designs using Wolford’s exclusive knitting technology, who she has worked in close collaboration with since 2003. In 2006, collaborated with Nine West. These shoes are not designed directly by Westwood, however, the Nine West brand name shares its label with Westwood.

Her hats for Gold Label and MAN are created by Prudence Millinery for Vivienne Westwood.

In December 2003, she and the Wedgwood pottery company launched a series of tea sets featuring her designs.

Artistic influence

Throughout her career, Westwood has been influential in launching the careers of other designers into the British fashion industry. Most notably, she employed the services of Patrick Cox to design shoes for her Clint Eastwood collection in 1984. The result was a prototype of the nine inch heeled shoes in which supermodel Naomi Campbell famously fell during a Westwood fashion show in Paris in 1994.

In May 2006, Westwood wrote a poem and provided personal photographs eulogising Swallows Wood, a Nature Reserve near Tintwistle where she was born and grew up. The Reserve is threatened with destruction by the construction of the Longdendale Bypass.

Political involvement

Westwood is also widely known as a political activist. On Easter Sunday 2008, she campaigned in person at the biggest Campaign for Nuclear disarmament demonstration in ten years, at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston in Berkshire, UK.

In September 2005, Westwood joined forces with the British civil rights group Liberty and launched exclusive limited design T-shirts and baby wear bearing the slogan I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don't arrest me. Westwood said she was supporting the campaign and defending habeas corpus. "When I was a schoolgirl my history teacher, Mr. Scott, began to take classes in civic affairs. The first thing he explained to us was the fundamental rule of law embodied in habeas corpus. He spoke with pride of civilisation and democracy. The hatred of arbitrary arrest by the lettres de cachet of the French monarchy caused the storming of the Bastille. We can only take democracy for granted if we insist on our liberty", she said. The sale of the £50 T-shirts raised funds for the organisation. Dame Vivienne has recently stated on television that she has transferred her long standing support for the Labour Party to the Conservative Party, over the issues of civil liberties and human rights.

Recognition

In 2007 Glossopdale Community College named one of its newly created houses, Westwood, after Vivienne. Westwood accepted a DBE in the 2006 New Year's Honours List for services to fashion, and has thrice earned the award for British Designer of the Year.

Family

Westwood has always been loved by her friends and family, and is by her friends and family known as a loving, caring person. She is the godmother of high-fashion model and socialite Lady Elissa Spencer-Wilhelmsen Ainsworth, and was the one who discovered designer Rosamund Jacqueline Lodge Ainsworth who is Lady Elissa's sister-in-law, she married Lord Philip Spencer-Wilhelmsen Ainsworth this summer. Westwood has designed the wedding dress together with the bride, and attended the wedding along with her sons as normal guests.

Children

• Ben Westwood, son of Vivienne and Derek Westwood, is a photographer of erotica.
• Joseph Corre, son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.
• Westwood has been married to Andreas Kronthaler, her former assistant, since 1992. Kronthaler is 25 year her junior, and 27 years of age at the time of their marriage.

Controversy

Notorious for going knicker-less, she caused a stir in 1992 when she came to collect the OBE, and twirled to reveal all. After being made a Dame in 2006 by the Prince of Wales she disclosed that she was knicker-less again.

See also

• Malcolm McLaren
• SEX

References

External links

• Vivienne Westwood Official Vivienne Westwood website
• Hervia Ltd) North West based UK Franchise with six stores for Vivienne Westwood
• [http://www.fashion-forum.org/fashion-designers/vivienne-westwood.html Vivienne Westwood - Biography
• westminsterfashion - Biography

* Paris Fashion Show 2007: Vivienne Westwood catwalk

• Seditionaries the largest website dedicated to showing SEX & SEDITIONARIES clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood circa 1975 to 1979
• Punk Pistol a SEX & Seditionaries tribute site dedicated to the vintage clothing of Westwood & McLaren
• Punk pirate WORLDS END - the collaboration between Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren for their WORLDS END Pirate collection show in 1981. The only website on the web dedicated to this period of their work
• Buffalo Girl Outfit Outfit from Buffalo Girl collection at Liverpool Walker Gallery
• Vivienne Westwood exhibition website, featuring resources and activities. Victoria and Albert Museum. .

Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI, (born 8 April, 1941) is an English fashion designer largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

She is linked with the Sex Pistols via Malcolm McLaren and their SEX boutique on Kings Road, Chelsea in London during the 1970s. The shop was at 430 Kings Road.

Biography

Early life

Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in the village of Tintwistle in Glossop, Cheshire (now in the county of Derbyshire) on April 8 1941, daughter of Dora (Ball) and Gordon Swire, a storekeeper. She attended Glssop Grammar School and studied at the Harrow School of Art (later to become the University of Westminster) for one term. Vivienne went on to attend Trent Park College (later to become the Middlesex University) and later taught at a primary school in North London. She loved teaching.

Malcolm McLaren

Vivienne's first husband was Derek Westwood, with whom she had one child, Ben. Their marriage lasted three years. She then met Malcolm McLaren, later known for being the manager for punk band The Sex Pistols. The two lived in a council flat in Clapham and had a son named Joseph. Westwood continued to teach until 1971, when Malcolm decided to open a shop, Let It Rock (also known as Sex, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, Seditionaries) where Westwood began to sell her outrageous designs. During this period, Westwood, McLaren, and artist Jamie Reid were influenced by the Situationists. She still owns the shop, which is at 430 King's Road, and sells her Anglomania label from there. The shop is now known as World's End.

Punk

The punk style began to gain notoriety when the Sex Pistols wore clothes from Westwood and McLaren's shop at their first gig. The "punk style" included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars that were used as jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair. The inclusion of more traditional elements of British design, such as tartan fabric, amongst the more unusual elements of her style only served to make the overall effect of her designs more shocking.

Together, Westwood and McLaren revolutionised fashion, and the impact is still felt today. She has only a few exclusive shops, including three in London, two in Manchester, and one each in Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds. A ninth opened in FH Mall, Nottingham on 20th March 2008. Westwood worked historical factors into her collection by using historical 17th-18th century original cutting principles and modernising them. This collection was about 'gold and treasure, adventure and exploration'. Other influences in Westwood's work have included ethnic Peruvian influence, feminine figure, velvet and knitwear. A historical influence has always shown in her work.

Artistic collections

The first major retrospective of her work was shown in 2004–5 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the National Gallery of Australia. The exhibition is made up of around 145 complete outfits, grouped into the themes which have dominated her work from the early 1970s to the present day and were drawn from her own personal archive and the V&A's extensive collection. They range from early Punk garments to glamorous 'historical' evening gowns. The retrospective is touring the world and is set to continue until 2008.

Her Autumn/Winter 2005/06 Propaganda Collection drew inspiration from her archive, reinterpreting designs using Wolford’s exclusive knitting technology, who she has worked in close collaboration with since 2003. In 2006, collaborated with Nine West. These shoes are not designed directly by Westwood, however, the Nine West brand name shares its label with Westwood.

Her hats for Gold Label and MAN are created by Prudence Millinery for Vivienne Westwood.

In December 2003, she and the Wedgwood pottery company launched a series of tea sets featuring her designs.

Artistic influence

Throughout her career, Westwood has been influential in launching the careers of other designers into the British fashion industry. Most notably, she employed the services of Patrick Cox to design shoes for her Clint Eastwood collection in 1984. The result was a prototype of the nine inch heeled shoes in which supermodel Naomi Campbell famously fell during a Westwood fashion show in Paris in 1994.

In May 2006, Westwood wrote a poem and provided personal photographs eulogising Swallows Wood, a Nature Reserve near Tintwistle where she was born and grew up. The Reserve is threatened with destruction by the construction of the Longdendale Bypass.

Political involvement

Westwood is also widely known as a political activist. On Easter Sunday 2008, she campaigned in person at the biggest Campaign for Nuclear disarmament demonstration in ten years, at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston in Berkshire, UK.

In September 2005, Westwood joined forces with the British civil rights group Liberty and launched exclusive limited design T-shirts and baby wear bearing the slogan I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don't arrest me. Westwood said she was supporting the campaign and defending habeas corpus. "When I was a schoolgirl my history teacher, Mr. Scott, began to take classes in civic affairs. The first thing he explained to us was the fundamental rule of law embodied in habeas corpus. He spoke with pride of civilisation and democracy. The hatred of arbitrary arrest by the lettres de cachet of the French monarchy caused the storming of the Bastille. We can only take democracy for granted if we insist on our liberty", she said. The sale of the £50 T-shirts raised funds for the organisation. Dame Vivienne has recently stated on television that she has transferred her long standing support for the Labour Party to the Conservative Party, over the issues of civil liberties and human rights.

Recognition

In 2007 Glossopdale Community College named one of its newly created houses, Westwood, after Vivienne. Westwood accepted a DBE in the 2006 New Year's Honours List for services to fashion, and has thrice earned the award for British Designer of the Year.

Family

Westwood has always been loved by her friends and family, and is by her friends and family known as a loving, caring person. She is the godmother of high-fashion model and socialite Lady Elissa Spencer-Wilhelmsen Ainsworth, and was the one who discovered designer Rosamund Jacqueline Lodge Ainsworth who is Lady Elissa's sister-in-law, she married Lord Philip Spencer-Wilhelmsen Ainsworth this summer. Westwood has designed the wedding dress together with the bride, and attended the wedding along with her sons as normal guests.

Children

• Ben Westwood, son of Vivienne and Derek Westwood, is a photographer of erotica.
• Joseph Corre, son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.
• Westwood has been married to Andreas Kronthaler, her former assistant, since 1992. Kronthaler is 25 year her junior, and 27 years of age at the time of their marriage.

Controversy

Notorious for going knicker-less, she caused a stir in 1992 when she came to collect the OBE, and twirled to reveal all. After being made a Dame in 2006 by the Prince of Wales she disclosed that she was knicker-less again.

See also

• Malcolm McLaren
• SEX

References

External links

• Vivienne Westwood Official Vivienne Westwood website
• Hervia Ltd) North West based UK Franchise with six stores for Vivienne Westwood
• [http://www.fashion-forum.org/fashion-designers/vivienne-westwood.html Vivienne Westwood - Biography
• westminsterfashion - Biography

* Paris Fashion Show 2007: Vivienne Westwood catwalk

• Seditionaries the largest website dedicated to showing SEX & SEDITIONARIES clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood circa 1975 to 1979
• Punk Pistol a SEX & Seditionaries tribute site dedicated to the vintage clothing of Westwood & McLaren
• Punk pirate WORLDS END - the collaboration between Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren for their WORLDS END Pirate collection show in 1981. The only website on the web dedicated to this period of their work
• Buffalo Girl Outfit Outfit from Buffalo Girl collection at Liverpool Walker Gallery
• Vivienne Westwood exhibition website, featuring resources and activities. Victoria and Albert Museum. .