Provocative fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who created the iconic, envelope-pushing looks of Britain’s punk and New Romantic movements in the 1970s and ‘80s, has died “peacefully and surrounded by her family” in Clapham, South London, according to an announcement on her fashion house’s social media. She was 81 years old.
Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in the English village of Tintwistle, Derbyshire, on April 8, 1941, and after a brief stint at Harrow Art School, she began selling her own jewelry line on London’s Portobello Road in the early 1960s. She met her second husband, future Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, in the late ‘60s, and became a chief architect of punk style when she and McLaren opened a Chelsea district boutique, Let It Rock, on King’s Road in 1971.
The store, renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die in 1973, SEX in 1974, and Seditionaries in 1976, became a punk hub, boasting customers like the four original Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Adam Ant, and Siouxsie Sioux.
In 1981, as new wave and New Romanticism came into vogue in Britain, Westwood created her “Pirate” fashion collection, the designs of which were frequently worn by members of Duran Duran, Adam and the Ants, Culture Club, and Bow Wow Wow. During this era, some of Westwood’s signature elements — the squiggle pattern, curved-heel buckle boots, courtesan-inspired corsetry, Victorian crinolines, fluffy blouses, tartans, and orb-shaped jewelry — were established.
According to a blog post on Westwood’s website, the orb logo, which combined Britain’s crown jewels with the ring of Saturn, “perfectly reflected” the designer’s “idea of taking tradition into the future.”
Along with her style-setting career, Westwood stayed true to her punk roots and was an ardent political activist throughout her life, supporting the U.K’s Labour and Green parties, the British civil rights group Liberty, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the clean-energy crowdfunding platform Trillion Fund, PETA, Chelsea Manning, and Julian Assange, among other causes. She penned a manifesto called Active Resistance to Propaganda, which she examined the pursuit of art in relation to the human condition and climate change.
On her 80th birthday in 2021, Westwood was commissioned by art platform CIRCA to create a new 10-minute film, screened in Piccadilly Circus, about the growing environmental crisis.
Westwood advanced from OBE to DBE in 2006 “for services to fashion,” and among her other accolades were two awards for British Designer of the Year, a Fellowship at King’s College London, and an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Heriot-Watt University. In 2012, she was selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork — the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover — to celebrate British cultural icons. That same year, she was chosen as one of 60 people to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II; a tartan Westwood outfit was featured on a commemorative U.K. postage stamp; and Time magazine declared her one of the greatest fashion icons of all time.
Westwood’s designs remained relevant and sought-after throughout her career, with young celebrities like Dua Lipa, the Hadid sisters, Kristen Stewart, Rita Ora, Hailey Bieber, Doja Cat, Dita Von Teese, Miley Cyrus, and Princess Eugenie all wearing her fashions. …
Pharrell Williams generated a social media frenzy when he wore a Westwood Buffalo hat, originally from Westwood’s 1982-83 collection, to the 2014 Grammy Awards; the hat was so popular that it actually inspired its own parody Twitter account. Westwood’s pearl bas relief orb choker even became the most popular accessory on TikTok in 2021.
Dame Vivienne Westwood is survived by her son with Malcolm McLaren, Joseph Corré (who also went into fashion, founding the popular lingerie company Agent Provocateur); her granddaughter Cora Corré, a fashion model; Ben Westwood, her son with first husband Derek Westwood; and her third husband and creative partner, Andreas Kronthaler.
