Remembering the Legacy of Dame Vivienne Westwood, the Queen of British Fashion

On December 29, 2022, the death of the fashion industry's foremost thinker, Dame Vivienne Westwood, was announced. She died that same day, peacefully, aged 81, at her South London home with her family by her side. Her spirit -- subversive, radical, unapologetic -- and global repercussions are something extremely hard to dissect or even put into words. There will never be enough history books to talk about the legacy she has left. Westwood radically changed the course of fashion, politics, music and activism. All conversations around class, feminism, sustainability and self-expression in the industry are owed to her. It is a loss that hurts, but her legacy is one that will live on forever.

In the '70s, the press described Westwood's designs as "Horrifyingly repugnant," yet today, the industry says goodbye to her with, "The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better." Westwood opened uncomfortable conversations that were necessary to evolve and disrupt tradition. Her label was never about consumption but about ideas. She made endless contributions towards environmental responsibility, political justice and culture, always advocating for freedom of personal identity expression and intellectual evolution. May we never forget her ethos and spirit.

Although her five decades in fashion are impossible to summarise, below we highlight some of the many moments that defined her extensive and successful career.

Safety-Pins, Punk and Sex

In 1971, Westwood and her then-partner and Sex Pistols' manager, Malcolm McLaren, opened a small boutique at 430 Kings Road, home to the punk generation. The store, which started as "Let It Rock," was later changed to "Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die," "Seditionaries: Clothes for Heroes," and more famously, "Sex" in 1974. Leather, rubber, bondage, suspender belts, fishnet tights, short skirts and see-through tops were sold as aggressively confrontational and defiantly asexual weapons. The couple notoriously dressed early punk icons such as the New York Dolls, Chrissie Hynde, and the Sex Pistols. One of her most popular employees Jordan stated in Spare Rib, "People keep away from me. They sort of stand away and look on. They think I'm very cold. I'm not vampy or an ogre, but I've been to places where they've had bets on who's got the nerve to dance with me."

Historic Lust

In 1981, Westwood and McLaren debuted their first runway show in London. The collection, dubbed "Pirates," was an exploration of the past that subverted constricting, conservative 18th-century garments into liberating sensual silhouettes. "Knowledge of the past lends perspective to the present and insight into the future. All my ideas come from studying the ideas of the past. I design clothes in the hope of breaking convention," commented Westwood during a Painted Ladies episode in 1996. Westwood became an independent entity in 1987 and continued to disrupt conventions. In her final collection of the '80s, "Voyage to Cythera," Autumn/Winter 1989, Westwood turned some of fashion's most oppressive garments, corsets and crinolines and turned them into a feminine manifesto. She also parodied the upper classes through unique juxtapositions of drapery and tailoring.

Anglomania

During the naughty '90s, Westwood began a new era inspired by elegant British tailoring and exaggerated French bourgeois dress codes. A mix of tartan, Scottish kilts and puffed shapes took over her runways. This period also included her marriage to Andreas Kronthaler, who is now in charge of the label. Highlights include Naomi Campbell's fall on the runway with platform Versailles-like heels during the Autumn/Winter 93-94 show, or Kate Moss' iconic strut in the Spring/Summer 1994 collection, "Café Society," revealing bare breasts, a very short miniskirt and a magnum in her hand. Westwood's Anglomania years were characterized by youthful collections that merged iconic tailoring and draped silhouettes. She also invented her own clan, MacAndreas, which was officially recognized by The Lochcarron of Scotland.

Relentless Activism

In 2017, at the Royal Festival Hall in Southbank Centre, Westwood stated while wearing a white, worn-out tee, "My motto is: Buy Less, Choose Well, Make it Last. You can change your lifestyle, and it will cost you less. Essentially we are all trained to be consumers. You have to invest in culture, not in consumption." However, this was not a new notion for the designer; it was a message she had reiterated over and over again for the last two decades, from her Autumn/Winter 2005 "Propaganda" show all the way to her Spring/Summer 2016 Red Label collection. In 2018, she received "The Swarovski Award for Positive Change" at the British Fashion Council (BFC) Awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall. Westwood's commitment to activism will continue with the not-for-profit organization "The Vivienne Foundation," set to launch in 2013.