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eISBN 978-1-80279-646-9

INTRODUCTION

EARLY YEARS

PUNK IS BORN

MOVING INTO NEW (ROMANTIC) REALMS

BECOMING VIVIENNE

GLOBAL STATUS

WESTWOOD FIGHTS FOR A BETTER WORLD

HER LEGACY

INDEX

CREDITS

Alongside her statement designs on the runway, Westwood was also known for wearing bold looks herself, among them was her bright orange hair which she sported for much of her career, as pictured here.

Introduction

“You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes.”
Vivienne Westwood

Credited with being one of the most influential designers and figures to come out of the UK in the twentieth century, Vivienne Westwood played a key role in some of the most pivotal movements of the era. From heading one of the labels and destinations that promoted the punk movement of the 1970s to, later, helping to spearhead a shift towards more sustainable practices in the fashion industry across the globe, Westwood was a woman with a passion for pushing the envelope and challenging the status quo in the name of creating a more just world – and ensuring we had plenty of show-stopping styles to do it with.

Westwood poses at Waterloo station following the launch of the Save the Arctic campaign, July 2015.

Photographer John Stoddart captures a smiling Westwood in February 1991.

Westwood’s immeasurable impact can be felt through her influence on fellow fashion names such as Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Marc Jacobs, while fashion school graduates also continue to cite her as a key inspiration for their collections. As we explore the colourful life of the Derbyshire-born icon, we reflect on the power that one working-class ex-school teacher can have on the world of fashion, activism and culture as a whole – and all the ways in which her legacy continues to thrive after her passing.

Westwood attended Harrow School of Art for one term before leaving to attend teacher training college.

Origins of an Icon

“I’ve always felt heroic about my life... As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.”
Vivienne Westwood

The child of a weaver mother and grocer father, the icon we know as Vivienne Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire on April 8, 1941, in Glossop, England. In the late 1950s, Vivienne and her family moved down to North London, where her parents ran a post office. Dora Swire would spend much of her spare time crafting clothes for Vivienne and her brother, Gordon. “My mother was very particular about clothes and what she’d let me wear,” Vivienne once said. “She made it all.”

When reflecting on her childhood, Vivienne noted: “I lived in a part of the country that had grown up in the Industrial Revolution.” She added: “I didn’t know about art galleries . . . I’d never seen an art book, never been to the theatre.”

Westwood was a student at Glossop Grammar School before moving to London with her family in 1957.

Vivienne began crafting her own clothes at a young age, making dresses for herself while still at school. She continued creating into her late teens when she enrolled at Harrow School of Art. It wouldn’t take long for her to leave the course, feeling isolated from her peers due to her working-class background. She would instead enrol at teacher training college and go on to teach at primary school, making jewellery in her spare time and selling it from a stall at Portobello Road Market.

In 1962, Vivienne married a man named Derek Westwood, whose name she would keep until her death in 2022. Derek was a tradesman and a proud Mod, a subculture that swept the UK for much of the 1960s. The pair welcomed a son, Ben, into the world the next year, parting ways just months later. Now in her mid-twenties, Vivienne left Derek and took their baby son to live with her parents, and worked on her jewellery projects to make a living.

While attending art school, Vivienne’s brother Gordon crossed paths with a 19-year-old character known as Red Malcolm. Gordon and his new friend rented a flat together and soon invited Vivienne and baby Ben into the home. Following a whirlwind courtship, Vivienne and Malcolm welcomed their own son, Joe, into the world.

Malcolm McLaren’s family was familiar with the fashion game. His mother and stepfather ran the womenswear label Eve Edwards, while his grandfather was a Savile Row tailor. Paul Gorman, one of the curators behind the 2014 exhibition ‘Let it Rock: The Look Of Music The Sound Of Fashion’, exploring McLaren’s contributions to fashion, stated, “He also quickly realised the potency of popular music and fashion. Once you put the two together you get some kind of combustion.”

Malcolm became a key figure in Vivienne’s life, infusing influences of groups like King Mob and ideologies from the Situationists, a European group of social revolutionaries who sought to challenge capitalist ideals. His presence stoked a fire in Vivienne, already very much a rebel in her own right, and inspired a newfound dedication to the world of clothing and its use to communicate messages of rebellion, revolution and resistance.

Vivienne and Malcolm, both individually and as a pair, would go on to pave new paths – through the subcultures developing in the UK and, ultimately, across the wider fashion world.

Westwood left teaching in 1972 to pursue creative activities full-time with Malcolm McLaren. The duo are pictured here in 1976 outside Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, where McLaren was remanded on bail for fighting.