She combined punk with fashion: Vivienne Westwood became famous with flashy outfits and provocative T-shirt messages. Now the British fashion designer has died.
Vivienne Westwood is dead. The fashion designer, known for her androgynous cuts and provocative slogans, has died at the age of 81, her agents confirmed to the British news agency PA.
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She was loud, shrill and unusual: Vivienne Westwood has now died at the age of 81 (December 29, 2022). The daughter of a shoemaker and a cotton spinner was one of the most famous fashion designers in the world. But she wasn't just a fashion icon – she provoked with her performances and was committed to climate and human rights. Looking back at an unusual life.
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Elementary school instead of fashion school
Vivienne Westwood has enjoyed sewing since she was a child, but dropped out of her fashion studies to become a teacher. She meets her first husband Derek, son Ben is born. Family life doesn't really fill her. The eccentric art student Malcolm McLaren brings momentum into her life, for whom she finally leaves her husband.
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Punk dream couple
Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren (centre) are moving in together. Together they run the famous boutique in London's King's Road 430, which they have given many faces and names. Son Joseph is born. At the beginning of the 80s, punk threatened to lose its credibility. McLaren, however, still adheres to the unconditional “against everything”. Too unworldly for Westwood: she separated from him in 1983.
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Inventor of punk fashion
But until then, the two have developed extravagant punk mod. They create funky creations from T-shirts and drainpipe trousers with safety pins, bicycle chains, even chicken bones. Many of the garments are now exhibited in museums, such as this skirt in the 2013 exhibition “PUNK: From Chaos to Couture” at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
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The breakthrough in fashion
In 1981, Westwood presented its own collection with “Pirates” for the first time, the fashion world out of the box. With the almost legendary pirate show, she said goodbye to punk and became a recognized designer. From now on there won't be a big show without the shrill Brit and her weird creations.
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Wilde Mode
After her split from McLaren in 1983, Vivienne Westwood raged in the fashion world. She is constantly reinventing herself, using whatever style she finds interesting. Her opulent rococo borrowings are famous, wide, short skirts with crinolines underneath, and exaggerated rococo hairstyles. She loves check patterns and creates her own: “Mac Andreas”.
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Movie-ready wedding robe
In the movie “Sex and the City” (2008), Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) wears a Westwood robe when she is about to marry her longtime lover, Mr. Big. The dream bursts when Big suddenly pinches. Carrie gathers her skirts, rushes into the street and beats the bridegroom with her bouquet of white roses. The gorgeous wedding dress makes the scene all the more tragic.
More than just a wedding dress
After the Westwood Robe made famous by the film, the fashion house can hardly save itself from repeat orders. At that time you had to pay almost 7500 euros for this dream made of silk and satin. Vivienne Westwood has designed many wedding dresses in her career. And the models are showing them off in their usual shrill way, like here at the Paris Fashion Week in March 2011.
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When shoes really get dangerous…
That too was one of her trademarks: absurdly high platform shoes. Westwood himself manages to walk in them. However, one of her models failed because of the 25 cm high heels. It hit supermodel Naomi Campbell of all people: live and in front of an audience on the catwalk in 1993. She trips and falls – the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a model.
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Avid Activist
Vivienne Westwood has been committed to a better world for many years. She takes part in protest marches: against the British government's anti-terror policy, against nuclear submarines, Guantanamo, fracking and climate change (above). She sends models down the catwalk with the Scottish independence movement's “Yes” button or donates $1.5 million to save the rainforest.
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Chat with Julian Assange
Although Vivienne Westwood hasn't gotten much out of punk lately, she liked to provoke. In February 2016, for example, she paid a media attention to the US enemy of the state, whistleblower Julian Assange (photo). In 2020 she is demonstrating in a bright yellow outfit in front of the court in London for the release of the Wikileaks founder.
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Age difference doesn't matter
The third man in her life is 25 years younger: the Austrian Andreas Kronthaler. Westwood teaches him during his fashion design studies in Vienna. At that time, Kronthaler fell in love with her: “She wore a catsuit made of sheer wool argyle, a girdle and clogs, she looked great,” he told the newspaper “Welt”. The two had been married since 1992.
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A real lady
The British royal family has repeatedly honored the work of the extravagant designer. In 1992, the Queen awarded her the “Order of the British Empire”. 14 years later she was even named “Dame Vivienne Westwood”. And that means in England: knighthood. Vivienne Westwood died in London on December 29, 2022 at the age of 81.
“Thank you darling”
Vivienne died “peacefully and surrounded by her family in Clapham, south London,” it said. Her husband Andreas Kronthaler emphasized in a statement: “We worked to the end and she gave me many things to carry on with. Thank you darling.”
Westwood was also known as an environmental activist
The British woman has also made a name for herself on the fashion scene since the 1970s with her irreverent attitude towards the establishment. Westwood is considered a pioneer of punk in the fashion industry. She ran a boutique on London's King's Road with Malcolm McLaren, manager of the punk band Sex Pistols.
Crazy Outfits
She then built a global fashion brand that now has shops in Britain, France, Italy, America and Asia has. Crazy outfits were her trademark for a long time. Westwood was also known as an environmental activist and brought climate change to the catwalk. She leaves two sons, the photographer Ben Westwood and Joseph Corré, the founder of the lingerie company Agent Provocateur.
haz/ack (dpa, rtr, afp)