Vivienne Westwood was born Vivienne Isabelle Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire on 8th April 1941. At the age of 17, Vivienne and her family moved to London.
She began designing in 1971 along with her partner Malcolm McLaren when London was at the forefront of cultural trends. The showcase for their ideas and designs was the shop at 430 Kings Road, London. With her changing ideas of fashion came the change of not only the name of the shop but the entire decor as well. In 1971, 430 Kings Road was known as “Let It Rock”. 1950s Rock n’ Roll records and clothing were sold at a time when ‘hippies’ were the fashion and Rock n’ Roll music was rarely heard on British Radio. In 1972 however, the shop was renamed “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die”. Westwood and McLaren sold Zoot suits, clothing with zips and chains as well as T-shirts with slogans. This was followed by “Sex” in 1974 with its provocative clothing including rubberwear for the office, leather bondage, T-shirts with zips and holes, bold slogans and pornographic images such as the infamous T-shirt with the photographic print of a woman’s naked breasts which remains a classic to this day. With 1976 came punk and “Seditionaries” which saw Westwood and McLaren redefine a street culture of their own. This was followed in 1981 by “World’s End” which remains the shop’s name to this day.
By the end of the seventies Vivienne Westwood was already considered a symbol of the British avant-garde and for Autumn/Winter 1981 she showed her first catwalk presentation at Olympia in London. It was her Pirate collection which launched the New Romantic movement. In October 1982, Westwood began to show in Paris, the first British designer to do so since Mary Quant. She opened a second shop in London called “Nostalgia of Mud” which closed at the end of 1984 and this coincided with the end of Westwood and McLaren’s collaboration.
1984 was an extremely significant year Vivienne Westwood. She was invited to show her collection in Tokyo with Hanae Mori, Calvin Klein, Claude Montana, and Gianfranco Ferre at “the Best of Five”.
1986 was the year which marked a radical change of direction for her. Street style and youth culture ceased to play a major part of her work and instead, Westwood looked to traditional Savile Row tailoring techniques, British fabrics and 17th and 18th century art for inspiration. The orb logo which was first used around this time perfectly symbolised taking tradition into the future.
In 1989 Mr. John Fairchild, President of Fairchild publications and Editor of the fashion trade bible Women’s Wear Daily, listed Westwood, in his book “chic savages”, as one of the six most influential designers in the world. It was in the same year that she met Andreas Kronthaler, who would later become her husband and long-time collaborator as well as Creative Director of Vivienne Westwood. Westwood has always included menswear within her womenswear collections but in July 1990, Westwood showed her first complete menswear collection at Pitti Uomo in Florence. Westwood was awarded the prestigious title of British designer of the year in 1990. In January 1991, she was chosen to show in Tokyo once again, this time alongside Christian Lacroix, Isaac Mizrahi, and Francesco Moschino at the Fashion Summit. In the same year, Westwood was awarded British Designer of the year for the second time running. In 1992, Westwood was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
1993 brought the division of her womenswear label in to two different lines – “Gold Label”, the couture range shown in Paris, and “Red Label” the pret-â-porter line. “Man” her independent menswear line made its debut to international acclaim in 1996 during Collezioni Uomo in Milan. In 1998 Westwood launched a new line “Anglomania” in order to complete the Westwood universe and to cater to a younger and more casual market. In the same year Vivienne Westwood launched her first fragrance “Boudoir”.
2004 saw the V&A host a Vivienne Westwood retrospective exhibition to celebrate her 34 years in fashion – the largest exhibition ever devoted to a living British fashion designer. The exhibition toured the world for over 4 years and was shown in over ten cities worldwide including London, Milan, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canberra and San Francisco. In 2006, her contribution to British Fashion was officially recognised when she was appointed Dame of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth the Second.
For Autumn/Winter 2005/06, to coincide with her Gold Label ‘Propaganda’ collection shown in Paris, Vivienne Westwood unveiled her cultural Manifesto called “Active Resistance to Propaganda”. The idea of the Manifesto evolved through her subsequent fashion shows which she used as a platform to promote her ideas. The Manifesto is a call to all to become more cultivated and in doing so more human. The manifesto has had many public readings in Europe and in the US with plans for similar readings in Asia.
In 2007, Vivienne Westwood was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Fashion at the British Fashion Awards in London.
In 2008 Vivienne Westwood showed her Red Label in London after almost a decade of absence from London Fashion Week and called on other British brands that now only show abroad to follow her example.
Vivienne Westwood today continues to show in Paris, Milan and London. She uses the medium of her shows to talk about culture and politics, more specifically about the urgent need to act against climate change.
While still completely independent, her business continues to grow with boutiques in Beirut, Bangkok, Singapore and Los Angeles set to open over the next few months.
Vivienne Westwood is now recognized as a global brand and Westwood herself as one of the most influential fashion designers in the world today.
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