Sunday, 11 May 2025
America Age
  • Trending
  • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Real Estate
    • Money
    • Crypto & NFTs
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Fashion / Beauty
    • Art & Books
    • Culture
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
Font ResizerAa
America AgeAmerica Age
Search
  • Trending
  • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Real Estate
    • Money
    • Crypto & NFTs
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Fashion / Beauty
    • Art & Books
    • Culture
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
© 2024 America Age. All Rights Reserved.
America Age > Blog > Top Story > Vivienne Westwood dies at 81
Top Story

Vivienne Westwood dies at 81

Enspirers | Editorial Board
Share
Vivienne Westwood dies at 81
SHARE

Written by Nick Glass, CNN

British fashion designer and style icon Vivienne Westwood has died aged 81. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family, at her home in London on Thursday, according to an official statement from her eponymous company.

To the media, she was “the high priestess of punk” and the “Queen of Extreme.” To the fashion world she was a beloved character who energized and pushed the boundaries of the industry until her death.

She twirled sans culottes for photographers after receiving her Order of the British Empire from the Queen in 1992. In April 1989, she made the front cover of Tatler magazine, dressed in an Aquascutum suit she said was intended for Margaret Thatcher.

Westwood, frankly, didn’t give a hoot. As the oldest of ingénues with periodically orange-tinted hair and alabaster complexion, she rose disgracefully to the revered status of British national treasure.  

“I have an in-built perversity,” Westwood’s reported to have said, per Jon Savage’s seminal “England’s Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock,” “a kind of in-built clock which always reacts against anything orthodox.”

1/27

Vivienne Westwood at Buckingham Palace, after receiving her OBE from the Queen in 1992. Scroll through the gallery to see more of her life and career. Credit: Martin Keene/PA Images/Getty Images

She was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Derbyshire, England on April 8, 1941. Her mother worked as a weaver at local cotton mills; her father came from a family of shoemakers. She began making clothes for herself as a teenager.

After a term at Harrow Art School, she worked as a primary school teacher, and married a factory worker, Derek Westwood, in 1962.

But everything changed when she left her husband, and met Malcolm McLaren in 1965.

“I felt as if there were so many doors to open, and he had the key to all of them,” she told Newsweek in 2004.

It’s impossible to imagine 1970s Britain without their creative partnership. McLaren managed the Sex Pistols and from a shop on London’s King’s Road, Westwood helped develop a visual grammar for the punk movement.

"Sex Pistols" manager Malcolm McLaren with Vivienne Westwood outside Bow Street Magistrate Court in London.

“Sex Pistols” manager Malcolm McLaren with Vivienne Westwood outside Bow Street Magistrate Court in London. Credit: Bill Kennedy/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

The shop changed names — Let It Rock; Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die; Sex; Seditionaries — but you couldn’t escape its impact on the street.

“It changed the way people looked,” Westwood told Time magazine in 2012. “I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way.”

Her clothes ranged from fetishistic bondage gear to massive platform shoes and slogan T-shirts. Seditionaries famously sold a t- shirt showing the Queen with a safety pin through the royal lip.

Westwood eventually moved on. In 1981, at 40, Westwood launched her first catwalk collection with McLaren. The gender neutral clothes evoked the golden age of piracy, highwaymen, dandies and buccaneers. Westwood studied old tailoring techniques and subverted them, an approach later imitated by other British designers like John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.

Over the course of the decade, Westwood drew inspiration eclectically from Keith Haring, “Blade Runner” and the French Foreign Legion.

She introduced the mini-crini (combining the tutu and Victorian crinoline), flesh-colored tights with modesty fig leaves and signature corsetry worn as outerwear; she designed frocks for women with breasts and hips (ask Nigella Lawson or Marion Cotillard, who both wore Westwood to dramatic affect); she would experiment with Harris tweed and tartan.

John Fairchild, then the all-powerful editor of Women’s Wear Daily, conferred his blessing in 1989. In his view, she was one of the six most influential designers of the 20th century, along with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Christian Lacroix and Emanuel Ungaro. Westwood was the only woman, the only Brit, and the only designer on his list who was not already a multi-million-dollar brand. (In 1989, she was still living in an ex-council flat in South London and was “virtually bankrupt,” according to Jane Mulvagh’s 1998 biography, “Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life.”)

Style writer Peter York summed her up in a 1990 documentary: “All the things that fuel her, and all the obsessions she builds her work around are typically British: The whole thing about class and sex, the particular obsession with the Queen. You couldn’t develop those anywhere else.”

Vivienne Westwood and her husband and fellow designer Andreas Kronthaler at Paris Fashion Week in 2013.

Vivienne Westwood and her husband and fellow designer Andreas Kronthaler at Paris Fashion Week in 2013. Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

In 1992, Westwood married an Austrian design student, Andreas Kronthaler, 25 years her junior. They worked as co-designers, before he took over her ready-to-wear line in 2016. In a statement released with the announcement of her death Kronthaler said, “I will continue with Vivienne in my heart. We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank you darling.”

Tributes began pouring in Thursday night from around the world. Model Bella Hadid posted photos taken with the designer on Instagram and wrote, “I will forever be grateful to have been in your orbit, because to me and most, in fashion and humanity, you, Vivienne, were the sun.” British Vogue editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, also paid tribute on his Instagram, describing the designer as “a true icon of British fashion and an irreplaceable force in the industry.” And on Twitter, singer Boy George wrote “R.I.P. to the great and inspiring Vivienne Westwood who lead us through punk and beyond,” adding, “she is the undisputed Queen of British fashion.”

Westwood was a passionate activist on issues that ranged from the climate to free speech. Westwood was an outspoken advocate for the planet, often promoting quality over quantity when it came to fashion consumption. For her Fall-Winter 2019/2020 show at London Fashion Week, Westwood sent models, actors, and activists down the runway with political signs — one of which read “What’s good for the planet is good for the economy.”

She often took part in environmental demonstrations, and in 2015, memorably rode a tank to then British Prime Minister David Cameron’s constituency home to protest against hydraulic fracking. In June 2020, Westwood, dressed in yellow, suspended herself in a giant birdcage to protest the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside Britain’s central criminal court.

The Vivienne Foundation, a not-for-profit company, founded by Westwood, her sons & granddaughter in late 2022, will officially launch next year. According to her spokespeople it will “honour, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne’s life, design and activism.”

RSS

Share This Article
Twitter Email Copy Link Print
Previous Article ISW: Kremlin continues to manipulate Russian law to eliminate dissent, threaten Ukrainian sympathizers ISW: Kremlin continues to manipulate Russian law to eliminate dissent, threaten Ukrainian sympathizers
Next Article Evidence of Russian crimes mounts as war in Ukraine drags on Evidence of Russian crimes mounts as war in Ukraine drags on

Your Trusted Source for Accurate and Timely Updates!

Our commitment to accuracy, impartiality, and delivering breaking news as it happens has earned us the trust of a vast audience. Stay ahead with real-time updates on the latest events, trends.
FacebookLike
TwitterFollow
InstagramFollow
LinkedInFollow
MediumFollow
QuoraFollow
- Advertisement -
Ad image

Popular Posts

Wickedly Enjoyable Celeb Costumes … Bow Down Witches!

It is the season of the witch, and these sinister stars are using in wickedly…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Prime Minister to attend United Nations General Assembly in New York

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 17, 2022 /CNW/ - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that he…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Frigid monster storm across US claims at least 34 lives

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Millions of people hunkered down against a deep freeze Sunday to…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Followers Hawking Justin Timberlake Mug Shot Merch After DWI Arrest

Justin Timberlake followers are capitalizing on his authorized woes ... turning his glassy-eyed mug shot…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

You Might Also Like

Hope Hicks revealed her anger over the then-president’s actions in messages to Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, saying, ‘This made us all unemployable’
Top Story

Hope Hicks revealed her anger over the then-president’s actions in messages to Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff, saying, ‘This made us all unemployable’

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Opinion: The real outrage in Trump’s taxes
Top Story

Opinion: The real outrage in Trump’s taxes

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
US flight cancellations top 2,800
Top Story

US flight cancellations top 2,800

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Ways to help those facing homelessness in the cold
Top Story

Ways to help those facing homelessness in the cold

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
America Age
Facebook Twitter Youtube

About US


America Age: Your instant connection to breaking stories and live updates. Stay informed with our real-time coverage across politics, tech, entertainment, and more. Your reliable source for 24/7 news.

Company
  • About Us
  • Newsroom Policies & Standards
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Careers
  • Media & Community Relations
  • WP Creative Group
  • Accessibility Statement
Contact Us
  • Contact Us
  • Contact Customer Care
  • Advertise
  • Licensing & Syndication
  • Request a Correction
  • Contact the Newsroom
  • Send a News Tip
  • Report a Vulnerability
Terms of Use
  • Digital Products Terms of Sale
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Settings
  • Submissions & Discussion Policy
  • RSS Terms of Service
  • Ad Choices
© 2024 America Age. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?