Vivienne Westwood, ‘high priestess of punk’

It may or may not be a surprise to learn that although she is, at the time of her death, deeply synonymous with the British fashion industry as a whole, it was never Vivienne Westwood’s intention to become a ‘luxury’ label.

Her logo of the sovereign orb encircled by the rings of Saturn that now adorn Gen Z necks on Mini Bas Relief Pearl Chokers far and wide, represented her drive for taking tradition into the future. But anyone familiar with Vivienne Westwood’s early career will know that her regard for convention would, in those days, have barely surpassed her regard for dirt on the sole of her shoe. How would 1970s Vivienne have reacted to her future popularity among the very establishments she sought to confront? To what extent has her emblem, now associated with luxury, status and influence, obscured her Clapham-based punk-rock roots?

dropped out of Harrow Art School (now the University of Westminster) in the late fifties to become a primary school teacher. Her next venture into the world of fashion came only in the early seventies, when she and her thenhusband Malcolm McLaren opened a boutique store at 430 King’s Road in Chelsea.

Despite being better known among her prolific Chinese clientele as ‘Xi Tai Hou’, that is, the ‘Empress Dowager of the West’, Westwood claimed much humbler origins. Born in a small village in Derbyshire to a mother and father who had worked in the mills and as a greengrocer respectively, her connections to the glamorous worlds of fashion weeks and Damehoods (the ceremony for which she famously went commando) were non-existent, and her success still a long way o

Su ering increasingly from workingclass disillusionment regarding the scant economic prospects of the creative industry, Westwood

‘Motifs of Rebellion’

A dress and sash from the AW 1981 ‘Pirates’ collection. The collection marked a shift in Westwood’s inspiration. Historical style and British fabrics became her new trademark.

Christened ‘Let it Rock’ by the couple, the boutique prophesised Vivienne Westwood’s eventual status as an embodiment of the cultural zeitgeist of 1970s Britain. What began with 1950s memorabilia morphed into mohair sweaters and teddy boy trousers, fetishism and finally punchy slogan t-shirts fashioned from boiled chicken bones. Such rawness and garishness signalled that the hippie era had well and truly run its course.

‘Let it Rock’ was only the first of four more reincarnations undergone by 430 King’s Road during the seventies, with the boutique being renamed ‘Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die’ in 1972, ‘SEX’ in 1974, ‘Seditionaries’ in 1976 and finally ‘World’s End’ in 1979. Every few years the boutique was stripped and reinvented, charting the subversive development of the 70s punk rock movement and establishing Westwood and McLaren as some of its most

The Mini-Crini at Vienna Fashion Night 2014

The ‘Mini-Crini’ first debuted in 1985, and was a risqué homage to 19th century crinoline skirts (structured petticoat undergarments designed to hold the shape of ladies’ skirts) merged with the modern mini-skirt.

Harris Tweed Suit, AW 1988

‘Time Machine’ collection significant frontrunners. ‘God Save the Queen’ came to define an era for both the Sex Pistols- managed by McLaren- and Westwood, whose styling of the band and eponymous t-shirts developed icon status in tandem with the single’s chart success.

The collection was inspired by the eponymous H.G. Wells novel, and emulated medieval armour with detachable elements while giving o a distinctly militaristic look.

If nothing else the seventies had warned that as a designer, Westwood was restless. True enough, with the arrival of the SS81 Pirates