by Aimee Cameron
“There’s Westwood and then there’s the rest.”
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country girl with a rebel streak who became the undoubted Queen of British fashion. In 1971 Westwood and McLaren opened Let It Rock and later in 1974 they re-named the shop SEX. The shop promoted the concept of sexual confrontation with leather, bondage gear and rubberwear as their products and aimed to make sexual dressing more accessible in every day life. Westwood and McLaren meshed their love of confrontation, use of fetish and customised clothing, safety pins, razor blades and random slashing to create a new style: punk. Punk was not just a fashion statement but also a political stance, propogating an opposition to formal order.
In 1976 SEX changed to Seditionaries and there was one band that McLaren put together who would define and become the face of Punk, The Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols wearing Seditionaries clothing infuriated the Establishment and customers flocked in masses to the birthplace of Punk. Punk’s impact reached it’s peak in 1977 with The Sex Pistols’ “God Save The Queen” and little over a year later it was the beginning of the end. Westwood and McLaren closed the shop and were faced with the decision of either music business or fashion. The answer was fashion every time.
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n 1981 Westwood and McLaren made the leap from selling clothes to a niche market to staging their first fashion show, the collection was called “Pirate.” By 1980 Punk was swept aside for a new romantic movement, fashion was changing from black and white to a burst of colour and the ‘Pirate’ collection captured this perfectly. ‘Pirate’ was mainly androgynous with an influence from 18th century France and Westwood displayed her experimental use of cutting, proportion and symmetry with the collection. The 1983 A/W collection ‘Buffalo’ was also influenced by other
success with it’s simple construction and defined graphics, after ‘Witches’ Westwood and McLaren’s collaboration came to an end. Westwood then moved to Italy and released her next collecton ‘Hypnos’ which was influenced by her new environment, featuring body conscious and generously proportioned pieces. Her ‘Clint Eastwood’ collection, inspired by the landscape of the Sergio Leone films, continued ‘Hypnos’ sportswear theme. When she returned from Italy her ‘Mini-Crini’ (S/S 1985) collection was based on a nineteenth century underskirt, a complete
These clothes are now searching for the primitive...to find romance cultures but had a much looser styling than ‘Savage’ (S/S 1982). With ‘Punkature’ (S/S 1983) Westwood showed how innovative she could be with the style consisting of basic shapes and the push and pull of fabric against the body. ‘Witches’ (A/W 1983) was a
change from her previous designs, she had re-created it to be both an over and undergarment. Then came her ‘Harrison Tweed’ collection, named after the woollen fabric, and featured a range of tweeds, black velvet and corsets. Out of this collection came the masterpiece, Westwoods spin on the crown. She took the Harrison Tweed symbol and added the rings of Saturn around it. In 1987 Westwood the first of five collections titled ‘Britain Must Go Pagan’ combining British suiting with pagan influence.
Westwood explained “The theory of pagan ideal was that civilisation should seek to be intelligent, sceptical and should cultivate art.
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estwood reached the height of outrageousness with her ‘Pagan V’ collection which featured a blatant penis print, causing some of the American press and buyers to opt out. Her subsequent collections became more grown up with elegant new outlines that concealed rather than revealed, sexuality was more elusively suggestive. Her 1990 ‘Portrait’ collection was notable for it’s faltering proportions. Westwood built upon the ‘Portraits’ collection with ‘Wallace’ to create inspirational accessories. In 1990 she created her first collection dedicated to men’s wear ‘Cut and Slash’ which contin-
ued with the blurred lines between male and female that is always apparent with her designs. Her follow up collection ‘Cut and Slash and Pull’ (S/S 1991) was a nod to historic fabric treatments, specifically Tudor times, and so she cut and frayed material to reveal skin. In 1991 her ‘Dressing Up’ collection combined memorable pieces from previous collections with elements of Scottish dress, tartan, sporrans and jabots. ‘Salon’ (S/S 1992) referenced her love of eighteenth century social gatherings with prints of gilded French salons featured on corsets and shorts. When Westwood married Kronthaler she commisioned her own tartan entitled ‘MacAn-
dreas’ as a token of affection and it was then featured in her ‘Anglomania’ (A/W 1993) collection. ‘Anglomania’, the show where Naomi Campbell fell in a pair of outrageous platformed shoes, had a foundation in Anglo-French relations and incorporated English and Scottish traditions. ‘Cafe Society’ (S/S 1994) had a template of the hourglass silhouette and contained subtle contradictions like languid lines with acute angles. In 1994 she caused outrage with her 1994 ‘On Liberty’ which
“To play around with sexual motives is to be in
featured bare flesh, padded backsides and a fur codpiece. With her 1995 collection ‘Vive la Cocette’ she had created the ultimate hourglass figure with a padded bust, accessorised with high platforms. She continued with her theme of flirtation in her 1996 collections ‘Les Femmes’ and ‘Storm in a Teacup’. In 1997 ‘Vive la Bagatelle’ (S/S) had subtly provocative pieces which gave off a happy romantic feel. ‘Five Centuries Ago’ (A/W 1997) was influenced by the Tudor era with Elizabethan inspired undergarments and almost no nod to modernism apart from an occasional use of grey. The collection featured Westwood classics, corsets, cinched waists, tartan and inviting sexuality. At the end of the 90s Westwood visited her roots with ‘Tied to the Mast’ (S/S 1998) which continued her hourglass silouhette but revisited the new romanticism of the 80s.
the Avante Garde.”
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y the millennium Vivienne Westwood’s designs, which were once considered too extreme for anyone, had reached a global market. The company Vivienne Westwood Ltd produced four collections, Gold Label (the main line, combining couture and ready-to-wear), Red Label (prêt-à-porter), Anglomania and Man (indpendant men’s wear). Gold Label was deluxe and featured custom made wedding gowns, Red Label was the oldest and the original Westwood line, Anglomania was the most affordable of the labels which had a portfolio of products including handbags, jewellery, scarves and a range of eyewear. In 1998 ‘Bou-
doir’ was introduced, the new signature perfume and by 2001 the company officially launched it’s website. By 2001 the label was not only selling commercially but vintage Westwood had also become highly prized. With her 2000 collection ‘Summertime’ (S/S0 her designs began to focus again on cutting, as with her work at the beginning of her career, and historical influence was put to the side for a natural exploration of cutting. She took properties of different fabrics as her inspiration and stripped back to the basics, leaving behind the theatrical elements, this was most noticable in the collection ‘Le Flou Taille’ (A/W 2003).
By 2005 she was becoming increasingly politically active and this reflected within her designs. ‘Propaganda’ (A/W 2005-6) was influenced by Aldux Husley’s three evils, nationalistsic idolatry, non-stop distraction and organised lying. In 2007 she launched her ‘Active Resistance to Propaganda’ manifesto, promoting the pursuit of high culture, anti-consumerism and awareness of climate change. In 2006 she was given a damehood, which she accepted wearing a pair of silver horns - a pagan symbol.
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ocial injustice, climate change, threats to civilisation and third world poverty are her main concerns and her designs have become a public vehicle for her political and ethical beliefs. Westwood has donated £1 million of her company’s money to the charity ‘Cool Earth’ which helps prevent deforestation, she designed a limited edtiion range of table cloths printed with political directive and designed T-shirts for GreenUp, an environmental programme, which were decorated with slogans in her own handwriting. Her activism is practical too, she was approached by the International Trade Centre of the United Nations to take part in an initiative to alleviate poverty in Kenya. She set up a scheme by using a wide range of recycled materials, over 250 women were employed to produce handcrafter bags under the Vivienne Westwood label.
Vivienne Westwood marked 40 years in the fashion business in 2011 and has went from one line, one directive, one seasonal collection, one shop to an international operation with global outlets, numerous licensing deals and four variations on a theme, Gold Label, Red Label, Anglomania and Man. Dame Westwood is still adept at the language of clothes.