Vivienne Westwood who passed away on Thursday at 81 was the avant-garde designer of the British fashion industry with unrivalled charisma that went beyond the confines of designer stores and runways. She was the “sartorial birth-mother” of Punk, but much of her illustrious career was marked by the contradiction of espousing anti-establishment values while fitting the norms of being part of the very same establishment.
Westwood vociferously campaigned for the environment and climate, advocating that the Victorian era that ushered in the industrial revolution was a recipe for disaster in current times. She also stood against fracking and for Julian Assange to be freed. Westwood’s wide range of activism ran parallel along with her designs labelled outlandish by critics, but held by admirers as informed by history. She once said her aim is to make the poor look rich and the rich look poor.
Westwood was born in Derbyshire, East Midlands to a greengrocer father and a mother who worked in the mill. Having lived through World War II restrictions and rationing, Westwood came to embrace frugality as a virtue and necessity which continued to guide her everyday life. Her parents moved to London after they bought a post office business, settling down in Harrow, which provided the base for a provincial family to seek integration with sprawling London.
She began her working life as a primary schoolteacher in London, but graduated to fashion after coming in contact with Malcolm McLaren, who managed the band Sex Pistols, and later became a music mogul. By then she had separated from her first husband Derek Westwood, and teamed up with McLaren to open a boutique in 1971, calling it Let It Rock. The name was later changed to Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die; Sex; World’s End. Westwood pioneered anti-establishment messages with sexually explicit images. Biker jackets and graffitied T-shirts bought the couple fame but also cops who charged them with public indecency.
In 1981, the couple got their first runway in London, showcasing their Pirate collection garnering shock and astonishment as it announced what a post-Punk era would look like. Personally, though, it brought separation, and forced Westwood to hone her skills beyond the use of the humble sewing machine in her modest flat. With help from family and friends, she managed her finances and brought her own reading of history to popular fashion. The post-punk aesthetic had to signify the end of the hippie movement, but there was also the imperative to continue with the eccentricity.
Westwood rode the wave of nostalgia, parading corsets, refashioning Harris Tweeds and taking a deeper plunge into the high-fashion world. Her original Boucher corsets command a minimum of £5,000, although moderately priced versions have been made available considering the high demand and aspirational value attached to it. She continued to make waves across the Atlantic and Europe, and found a huge clientele in Japan. In her biography she noted: “The only reason I am in fashion is to destroy the word ‘conformity’.”
In 1989 she mocked the then UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher by impersonating her on the cover of Tatler magazine, wearing a suit ordered by, but not delivered to, Thatcher. The most powerful person in British politics was not impressed with the headline ‘this woman was once a punk’ and the magazine’s editor was sacked the same month. In 1992, after collecting her Order of the British Empire medal at Buckingham Palace, Westwood’s playful twirl gave a fleeting glimpse to prying camerapersons who happily splashed the picture as proof that she had forgotten her undergarment at home.
“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.” She was 51 then, and was still living in her modest ex-council flat.
But in-between collecting accolades and expanding her fashion empire, she had also turned to teaching fashion. It was at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna that she met and fell in love with her student Andreas Kronthaler, 25 years younger to her. In 2006, when she was made a Dame, she confirmed that she was again not wearing her undergarment, but only this time there was no twirl. It was the same irreverence that made her send Kate Moss on the runway bare chested enjoying an ice-cream. Supermodel Naomi Campbell had a famous fall after losing balance, courtesy Westwood’s nine-inch platform heels.
Westwood’s designs have consistently shown strong aversion to power dressing. And she may have been the godwoman for punk, but in interviews she made the case for the youth to turn towards books and museums. From Madonna to members of the British royal family, and from Kardashians to Carrie Bradshaw (the fictional character played by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City), they have all chosen Westwood for marquee events.
But over the years, she had been in the public gaze for much theatrics outside the fashion runway as well. In 2005, she designed T-shirts with the message ‘I am not a terrorist, please don’t arrest me.’ To drive home the point on ill-effects of fracking, she literally arrived at David Cameron’s country home in a white tank. In July 2020, Westwood appeared in a suspended giant bird cage near the court where Assange’s case was being heard to highlight his illegal incarceration and opposing his extradition to the US. Beginning her career as a disruptor she transformed into a British icon but continued her rebellious streak right till the end.
Kronthaler, who helped Westwood run her business since they became a couple, issued a statement after her death, “We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank you darling.”
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