Dame Vivienne Westwood, the pioneering British fashion designer who introduced punk and politics to the exclusive world of high fashion, died on December 29 at the age of 81. A representative for Westwood stated that she died quietly and was surrounded by her family in Clapham, South London.
“The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” her fashion house said on Instagram.
“She led an amazing life. Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years has been immense and will continue into the future.”
The cause of death was not revealed.
The Life And Times Of Dame Vivienne Westwood:
Vivienne Isabel Swire was born on April 8, 1941, in Tintwistle, Cheshire, to a sausage factory worker father Gordon and greengrocer’s assistant mother Dora, before the bustles, bustiers, and bottom paddings, tartan, and tailoring. She attended Glossop Grammar School before moving to Harrow, a London suburb, with her parents in 1957.
Westwood then enrolled in a silversmithing programme at Harrow Art School (now the University of Westminster) for a term, but feel intimidated by the art world, she enrolled in secretarial college instead and ultimately trained as a teacher.
She met Derek Westwood, a Hoover plant trainee, at a dance in 1961 and married him in 1962, wearing her own outfit. They had a son together, Benjamin Westwood, born in 1963, but split up when he was three.
The Pioneer Of Punk And Politics Fashion:
In the 1970s, she launched her fashion career and swiftly rose to fame with her edgy, punk-inspired designs.
Even when she became identified with style and varied her focus from year to year, Westwood’s work had a rebellious spirit.
“The only reason I’m in fashion is to destroy the word ‘conformity,” Westwood said in her 2014 biography. “I’m not interested in anything until it has that element.”
Westwood once sent a bare-breasted Kate Moss down the runway while snacking on ice cream and nearly fractured Naomi Campbell’s ankle when the supermodel couldn’t keep straight in her nine-inch platform heels.
Vocal Critic Of Fast Fashion:
Westwood, instantly recognisable with her signature orange or white hair, remained staunchly anti-establishment.
Climate change, pollution, and her support for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange were all used as inspiration for protest T-shirts or banners worn by her runway models.
“I’ve always had a political agenda,” Westwood told the fashion journal L’Officiel in 2018. “I used fashion to question the current quo.”
She was an outspoken critic of fast fashion and a trailblazer in the use of ethical and sustainable materials in her creations.
“”I just tell people to stop buying clothes,” she had said once, as per a report by The Telegraph Online.
This commitment to environmental problems earned her the uneasy acceptance of the British elite.
Throughout her career, she garnered various awards for her contributions to the fashion business, including being named a Dame by Queen Elizabeth in 2006.