Anybody who has any real interest in fashion will have heard of Vivienne Westwood. Known globally for her outrageous designs, this is the women who made it acceptable to put chicken bones and safety pins onto clothing. This is the women who collected her OBE knicker-less. Lucie O’Grady tracks the journey of a northern lass turned international fashion icon, from punk controversy to high couture… I’m at the Millennium gallery in Sheffield to see the touring V&A 30 years in fashion Vivienne Westwood exhibition. I’ve just entered a dark mysterious gallery where I’m greeted by low floaty music and the projection of a clock ticking backwards. Underneath there’s a large quote from Vivienne herself expressing “I have a kind of in-built clock which always reacts against anything orthodox” and this by the time I leave the exhibition is well and truly confirmed. |
Bold beginnings
Vivienne’s fashion beginnings are the first displays I set eyes on. This early and often bizarre experimentation started when she met Malcolm McLaren, the manager of ‘The Sex Pistols’. Their punk rock ethics and outspoken ideas fused together to creative some of the most extreme and wacky fashion statements of the 1970s. |
Their designs were sold through their King’s Road shop in London and became must-haves, for every sub-culture loving fashion fiend, when the Sex Pistols wore their pieces on stage. The legendary punk band sported an array of unusual items such as razor blades, bicycle chains and spiked dog collars to intensify their unorthodox punk presence. Despite not being everyone’s cup of tea, this early unselfconscious exploration of fashion encouraged Westwood to remain bold in her ideas and sense of expression. |
Catwalk transition
It was at the start of the 80s when Vivienne began to see herself as a fashion designer, with Malcolm and Westwood’s first catwalk collection called ‘Pirate’ in 1981. The collect highlighted a clear growth from their underground punk roots and marked the beginning of a philosophy which has remained a reoccurring theme in her work –a personal take on the established. As their new found fame took off, Westwood and McLaren’s own romance ended. Their shop took on a new look and was renamed ‘World’s End’, which it’s still called today. Although they remained professional partners for some years, Vivienne soon established herself as a successfully independent designer.
Westwood style
Vivienne’s subsequent collections saw ideas she has continues to develop and explore to this day. Bored with just her own knowledge of fashion and ideals, she took McLaren’s advice, who suggested she “Do something romantic, look at history”. This triggered influences from classical sources such as painting and historical British dress, which helped her produce her famous playful mixing of traditional styles with avant-garde and often comic twists. Traditional British fabrics such as Harris Tweed and Tartan were mixed with futuristic materials, as Vivienne believes it’s essential to always present the familiar in a new light.
Her punk roots have been glimpsed through the light mocking of established norms such as monarchy, traditional formal dress and even high street fashion. Sensuous corsets, higher then high platforms, over puffed ball gowns and unconventional suits are just some of her best loved styles. One of her passions is to accentuate the curves of the body through heels and garments shaping to give the look of “anta on stilts”, as a way of accentuating and exhibiting the face, which she believes to be the most erotic part of a woman.
Fashion statements
Unsurprisingly Vivienne’s clothes have also been known to exclaim a political viewpoint. In 2005, she joined forces with the British civil rights group, ‘Liberty’, to design a t-shirt saying: I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please do not arrest me’, as a way to support the group’s campaign for human rights. A woman this daring as a designer can only be just as outspoken in character and Vivienne does not disappoint, “My clothes are a criticism against mediocrity in dress. I’m so appalled at the banality of everything else”, she states. Forget your simple designer wear, the g-star jeans, your worn out Dior sunglasses, Vivienne doesn’t do a one brand fits all. She believes we’ve become trapped in the endlessly pursuit of high street trends and the ‘everything with jeans’ look. She recently proclaimed “People must stop buying and buying. With so much fast fashion available to us, we are not giving ourselves the opportunity to develop good taste”.
Achievements
The Derbyshire lass born 1941, who stayed in reading too much as child, went from a small town teacher to an independent woman and mother of two with outspoken fashion ambitions. The latter have made her to one of the biggest, most loved fashion designers the world has ever known. Never once has she failed to produce a collection that can only be described as eclectic, exquisite and new. Her designs are so admired that they’ve been immortalised in museum collections and in Hollywood films such as ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ (1995) and this year’s ‘Sex and The City (2008). She’s won numerous awards including as OBE in 1992 and ‘Fashion Designer of the Year’ in 90, 91 and 2006. And after 34 years in fashion she’s still going strong and still has plenty to say and do. Vivienne is acknowledged today for her riot of original fabric manipulation and for making the fashion world a better place by offering her extreme influences and balancing out its banality. She will always be known as a creator of bold and beautiful designs, of fearless fashion statements and as England’s most eccentric fashion queen.
By Lucie O’Grady
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