Vivienne Westwood

The punk movement was a complex genesis, and it was often contended who and what were the initial causes for its spawn. One of the Britain’s most influential and tenacious designers, Vivienne Westwood, was cited as an instrumental figure for defining and marketing the punk visual identity. The industry pioneer recollected no previous fashion knowledge before her explosive appearance on the punk scene. Westwood was a primary school teacher raised in the small village of Tintwistle, spending her adolescent years enduring the hardships and poverty of post-war. I feel this is why Vivienne had such great passion for driving the punk contestation- she could resonate with the youth of the day and how they were feeling during the socio-economic and political catastrophes enveloping the country. She understood how it felt to live hard and worry about what was to occur next.

Her encounter with Malcolm McLaren in 1965 changed her life and British culture interminably. The couple acted as business acquaintances, opening a boutique in 1971 which idealised the rejection of conformity and demand for liberation the generation of the period craved. The store was situated in Kings Road, Chelsea- much in the disgust of the rich and bigoted. It was a socialised meeting point for thousands of rebellious beings who abominated capitalism and British materialism, wanting to reflect an axiom.

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Westwood played the role of seamstress, establishing clothes which were considered risqué territory and deviant of sexual practices. Many pieces were sold to prostitutes and individuals with underground provocative tastes, “capturing and commodifying the energy of iconoclastic tendencies of the movement” (Price, 2004). Garments were fabricated from rubber, leather, latex, and tartan, providing head turning embellishments through safety pins, bondage, bum flaps, and hobble straps. Insulting and challenging graphics were screen printed upon tees including swastikas and defacement of the former monarch’s face. The notion was to provoke, to strike conversation and secure publicity- they did exactly that. Malcolm McLaren created a prosperous relationship between music and fashion by taking the radical New York rock n roll aesthetic and launching the Sex Pistols. The protest-band were a crafty marketing technique for the SEX shop, wearing the graphic garments to match the crude charm of the band.

Could this be something I look into further for creating a statement FMP- combining the eclectic arts of music and fashion?