Dame Vivienne Westwood

Born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire, England, on April 8, 1941. Considered one of the most unconventional and outspoken

fashion designers in the world, Westwood rose to fame in the late 1970s when her early designs helped shape the look of the punk rock movement.

 The grandmother of punk, Dame Vivienne Westwood, has just announced that she'll be writing her first official memoir. Written with the help of her historian buddy Ian Kelly and with contributions from friends in weird places - Julian Assange, Pam Anderson and Prince Charles, just to name a few — the book will hopefully give us tips on how to change the world just like Viv did. Or at least some really juicy stories from the 70s.

Born Vivienne Isabel Swire on April 8, 1941, in the English town of Glossop in Derbyshire. She came from humble beginnings. Her father was a cobbler, while her mother helped the family keep ends meet by working at a local cotton mill.

In 1971, Mclaren opened a boutique shop at 430 Kings Road in London and started filling it with Westwood's designs. While the name of the shop seemed to be in constant flux—it was changed five times—it proved to be an important fashion center for the punk movement. When Mclaren became manager of the Sex Pistols, it was Westwood's designs that dressed the band and help it carve out its identity.

                         
But as the punk movement faded, Westwood was hardly content to rest on her laurels. She's constantly been ahead of the curve, not just influencing fashion, but often times dictating it. After her run with the Sex Pistols, Westwood went an entirely new direction with her Pirate collection of frilly shirts and other attire. Her styles have also included the mini-crini of the 1980s and the frayed tulle and tweed suit of the 1990s. She's even proved it's perfectly possible to make a subversive statement with underwear. "Vivienne's effect on other designers has been rather like a laxative," English designer Jasper Conran once explained.

"Vivienne does, and others follow."

Coupled with Westwood's unconventional style sense, is an outspokenness and daring that demonstrates a certain level of fearlessness about her and her work. In one famous incident she impersonated the Margaret Thatcher on the cover of an British magazine. To do so, she wore a suit Thatcher had ordered but not yet received, an act that made the Thatcher irate.
Still, Westwood's influence is hard to deny. Twice she has been named British designer of the year and was awarded the O.B.E. (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1992.
For more than 30 years, even after she had long made her fortune and fame, Westwood lived in the same small South London apartment, paying just $400 a month for the home and riding her bike to her studio in Battersea.

In 1993, ten years after Westwood and Mclaren split, Westwood married for a second time, to her assistant, Andreas Kronthaler, who is 25 years her junior. Today, Kronthaler is her design partner. The couple resides in South London.

 

There's More!

 Dame Vivienne Westwood's popularity knows no bounds. Her punk attitude is more alive now than in the movement's Seventies heyday and her outspoken, Union Jack waving Englishness (with a few added safety pins and tea stains), is undiminished. Cutting edge but classic, her collections are unflinchingly rooted in her interests and beliefs, whether it is human rights or classical fiction.

• In 1981, Westwood showed her first seminal collection in London, entitled Pirate
• In 1990, Westwood launched a menswear collection in Florence. She was named British Designer of the Year that year, as well as in 1991
• In 1998 she won the Queen's Export Award
• In January 2003 Westwood controversially sent men down her catwalk wearing fake breasts. The models for her autumn/winter 2003 menswear collection wore them underneath cashmere sweaters and polo necks.Westwood explained that, "the inspiration for the man with breasts was Fifties sweater boys."
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• Explaining the roots of her beliefs she said: "When I was a schoolgirl my history teacher, Mr. Scott, spoke with pride of civilisation and democracy. The hatred of arbitrary arrest by the lettres de cachet of the French monarchy caused the storming of the Bastille. We can only take democracy for granted if we insist on our liberty."
• Westwood's son by McLaren, Joe Corre, is the founder of Agent Provocateur, while her other son, Ben, is an erotic photographer. In 2008 her mother Dora attended her latest book launch for Opus, an arts manifesto costing £1400 per copy.
• In 2008 she put paid to rumours that she wasn't impressed with
  the wardrobe of the first Sex and the City film. "I stayed
  throughout the film, and was overjoyed to see Sarah Jessica in her
  beautiful wedding dress," Westwood told British
  Vogue,"Furthermore, I have been delighted to notice recently
  how well young girls are dressing, and that they have clearly been inspired by the film."
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• Pamela Anderson is Vivienne Westwood's long-time friend and signed a reported six figure deal to become the new face of Vivienne Westwood in 2008. In 2009 she graced the catwalk at Westwood's autumn/winter 2009-10 collection in London.
• In 2010 she was honoured at a ceremony for the Prince Philip Designers Prize. Westwood received a special commendation for her contribution to design from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
• Alongside her fashion range she launched a range of stationary in 2010 including notebooks and diaries in classic Westwood prints. She made her mark on the interiors world the same year with a selection of new table-cloth designs in support for eco charity Cool Earth. The designs were covered with bold, bright prints often with Westwood's trademark political polemics emblazoned across.

• In 2011 she was named Britain's Greatest British Fashion Designer in a poll conducted by Greenall. Over 3000 people voted with the Westwood scooping 24 per cent of the national vote.
• She dedicated her spring/summer2012 menswear show to the Olympics. Westwood made sure each catwalk look referred to the Games in some manner including T-shirts that came covered in printed torches, medals and statuesque Greek figures.
• Vivienne Westwood and photographer Juergen Teller went to Africa in 2011 to work on her autumn/winter 2011-12 Ethical Fashion Africa collection. A programme which enlists thousands of local women to use their skills to produce bags for Westwood and earn a fair wage in return. "This project gives people control over their lives," she said. "Charity doesn't give control, it does the opposite, it makes people dependant."

In 2011 she joined the Occupy London anti-capitalist protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral. She has often outlined her concerns for climate change and during a talk at the V&A in 2009 Westwood said: "There is hardly anyone left now who believes in a better world."

 

Never shy of controversy, Westwood complained of the lack of style in society. "People have never looked so ugly as they do today, regarding their dress," she told journalists after her Red Label show in London. "We are so conformist, nobody is thinking. I'm a fashion designer and people think 'what do I know?' but I'm talking about all this disposable crap. So I'm saying buy less, choose well, make it last…in history people dressed much better than we do. If you saw Queen Elizabeth it would be amazing, she came from another planet. She was so attractive in what she was wearing."

   

• To celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, she launched a new capsule collection inspired by gowns Queen Elizabeth had previously worn. The range, entitled the Red Carpet Capsule Collection, also paid homage to the British flag.
• In 2012 Westwood criticised plans of a London council to ban charity Scope from basing its clothing banks on council-owned land. A keen supported of charity shops she told theEvening Standard:"Charity shops are part of the fabric of our great city, but this short-sighted approach is totally unfair and damages charities at the expense of a quick buck."
• Vivienne Westwood credited London and its thriving culture scene as her biggest inspiration in a film for the Tate Britain's 'This Is Britain' campaign. "The great thing about London for me is the culture - the museums," the designer said in the film.

In 2012 Westwood triggered controversy when she created a
T-shirt in support of Julian Assange. The T-shirts were given to
her guests to wear front row at her spring/summer 2013 show. "I'm a big supporter of Julian Assange," Westwood told
Reuters.She selected the grand setting of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to show her spring/summer 2013 Red Label collection. The choice of the venue was a result of Westwood's involvement in the government's GREAT campaign. The designer fronted an international campaign as part of the initiative, which celebrated excellence in the creative industries, while promoting Britain as the preeminent place to study, visit or invest.

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• In 2012 she partnered with The Woolmark Company to create a
  luxury 12-piece-collection made from the finest Australian merino
  wool. "When I first began as a fashion designer, well over 30 years ago, I succeeded in re-introducing into fashion the idea of
  knitwear, the English twinset," Westwood told British
  Vogue. "Wool is one of the world's great natural fibres,
  famous for its versatility and comfort-warm in winter, cool in
  summer."

• In January 2013 she helped rebrand the English National Ballet with a new campaign that shows the ballet dancers wearing her creations. "It's a dream come true to be able to collaborate with someone of such stature," said Tamara Rojo, the English National Ballet's artistic director. "Her designs capture the creativity and ambition of our dancers who, in turn, add drama and movement to the clothes."
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