Vivienne Westwood’s Most Iconoclastic Designs Through the Years
LONDON — “When in doubt, dress up” was one of Vivienne Westwood’s mottos, and she lived it every day, whether she was protesting government policy, fighting for social and environmental causes, or taking a bow on the runway in Paris and London.
The designer drew heavily on historical costume and military attire, and worked British tartans and tweeds into her edgy, saucy and instantly recognizable designs. WWD’s late publisher and editorial director John B. Fairchild famously described her as a “designer’s designer” and a “true twinkling star” alongside Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani.
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Helena Bonham Carter, a longtime friend and client, said Westwood gave her the chance to “wear a Fragonard” [painting] and described her designs as so magical she wouldn’t be surprised if they got up at night and danced with each other.
Those designs didn’t just look good, they felt good, too. “The dresses do all the work for you,” declared Bonham Carter during Westwood’s memorial service in London in February 2023. The diminutive actress, who was wearing a pair of sky-high Westwood platforms on the day, said she could put away a full English breakfast and a bacon roll and still look good in her slinky Westwood Cocotte dresses.
Westwood’s rebel — and activist — spirit emerged early, when she and her then-husband Malcolm McLaren owned Sex, the boutique on London’s King’s Road. “Punk was so glamorous. You just looked incredible,” said the designer, who loved wearing her political statements on her sleeves and T-shirts. “Wear a slogan, and that idea will spread.”
Although she’s known as the godmother of punk style, but she became so much more. Curious, whip-smart and driven, she pushed herself hard, moving away from punk (and McLaren) to design collections inspired by historical costume, drawn from myriad sources including painting, literature and opera.
Her late ’80s and ’90s collections were a supermodel-studded romp, with inspirations as diverse as Rococo painting, the court of Marie Antoinette, 19th-century British aristocrats on horseback, and Toulouse Lautrec’s painted ladies.
A lifelong learner and voracious reader who began her career as a primary school teacher, Westwood always dug deep, researching and learning historical techniques, such as 17th-century fabric slashing, at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
She loved nothing more than turning clothes inside out, puzzling out how they were made, and believed there was no shame in imitation. Over the years many of her jackets and silhouettes were inspired by Christian Dior.
She worked corsets, crinolines, bustles, codpieces, plastic whalebones and padding into her designs, and fusing them together to create her signature sexy, subversive silhouettes. She played with innerwear as outerwear, and vice versa, and loved the idea of cross-dressing.
A textile whiz, she worked her beloved Harris Tweed, tartan, taffeta and barathea wool into those designs. Later in her career, when her social and environmental activism was in full flower, she turned to melton cloth and hemp because of their simplicity, raw edges and low environmental footprint.
For her men’s fall 2018 collection she created clothes in a color known as Mountbatten Pink, which was introduced by Lord Mountbatten during World War II. At the time, Westwood told WWD she liked the color because it appeared to be gray, but then changed to mauve under the light of dawn, and dusk.
Tradition, and respect for the past, were always top of mind, despite her non-conformist bent, and the “God Save the Queen” T-shirt, which she designed for the Sex Pistols in 1977. The torn T-shirt featured James Reid’s design showing queen with a safety pin across her mouth.
Westwood designed (and sometimes wore) ermine-edged crowns, and created a brand logo inspired by the orb from the crown jewels.
When Queen Elizabeth died in 2002, Westwood paid tribute to her service. “The Queen holds the country together. She’s a figurehead of international diplomacy. We all owe her our gratitude,” she said.
In the ’80s, Westwood even made clothing for Prince Charles and would later dress his wife, now Queen Camilla, for formal events.
In 2006, she happily accepted the title of Dame in 2006 from Prince Charles dressed in a black silk polkadot dress from her spring collection — and a pair of gold Swarovski horns perched on her head, an ancient symbol of fertility.
That was another thing about her — Westwood looked fabulous in her designs. Who could ever forget her dressed in a sharp-shouldered cape coat and driving a tank onto the lawn of then Prime Minister David Cameron’s Oxfordshire home?
She was taking part in an anti-fracking protest (one of her many causes) and, true to her motto, she dressed for the occasion.
Vivienne Westwood’s Most Iconic Collections: Photos
Launch Gallery: Vivienne Westwood's Most Iconic Collections: Photos
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