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Vivienne Westwood
Post date: 2006-02-20
By: Jennifer Sinrich
Vivienne Westwood, originally named Vivienne Isabel Swire, was born in Glossop, Derbyshire on April 8, 1941. At the age of 17 she moved to London because her parents bought a post office and needed to relocate. There she went to a teacher training college and soon taught at a primary school in North London. Her first husband was Derek Westwood with whom she had her child Ben with. The marriage lasted only three short years before she met Malcolm McLaren, later known for being the manager for punk band: The Sex Pistols. The couple had a son named Joseph. She did not begin designing until 1971 and used the shop at 430 Kings Road, London, to showcase her ideas. The decor and name of the shop finally changed as her fashion ideas began to revolutionize. She began to sell her outrageous designs and during this period, Westwood, McLaren, and artsit Jamie Reid were influenced by the Situationists. "Let it Rock" became the new name for the shop and 1950's Rock n Roll clothing was sold. This was during a time period when the "hippie" look was fashionable. In 1972, the shop's name changed again to "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die". The store's reputation for selling clothing for "Rockers" with zips and chains never altered and by the mid 70's, "Sex" became the shop's new title.
The punk style began to gain disrepute when the Sex Pistols wore clothing from Westwood at their first gigs. The 'punk style' involved BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicucle chains, spiked collars, as well as crazy make-up and hair. Soon, Westwood and McLaren revolutionised fashion and the impact still remains to this day. By 1976, the punk revolution set in, followed by "World's End" and Westwood's first runway show, the Pirate Collection which was displayed in March 1981, at Olympia in London. Her design style had developed so that her focused interests included tradition and technique as well as the youth and street culture. The following year, Westwood began to showcase in Paris, becoming the first British Designer to do so since Mary Quant.
By using 17th and 18th century principles and modernising them, Westwood worked historical factors into her collections. This collection was all about 'gold and treasure, adventure and exploration'. Other influences in Westwood's work have consisted of ethnic Peruvian influence, feminine figure, and velvet and knitwear. In Fall 1984, Westwood was invited to display her collection in Tokyo with Claude Montana, Gianfranco Ferre, Hanae Mori, and Calvin Klein at the "Best of Five" show. In 1989 Mr. John Fairchild, President of Fairchild Publications and Editor of "Women's Wear Daily", rated Westwood one of the best of six designers in the world, she being the only woman, in his book "Chic Savages". In July 1990, she showed her first full menswear collection along with Pitti Uomo in Florence, Italy. In Januarry 1991, Vivienne was chosen to again showcase in Tokyo with Christian Lacroix, Franco Moschino, and Isaac Mizrahi. Ms. Westwood has an OBE for her services to the British Fashion Industry and has recently been awarded the Queen's Award for Export.
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