1. EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING IS FASHION
The iconic King’s Road store, that propelled Westwood into fame, was founded from the mentality that fashion can quite literally encompass anything. From bondage, to rubber-wear, to magazines, to music memorabilia, to a stance, to state of mind – the rebellious punk aesthetic Vivienne helped synthesise was more than just clothing, it was a way of being. “SEX” was the name, and shocking the world was the game. Westwood and Maclaren had no intention of narrowing their domain, their cultivating of punk rock was expansive and unrestrained. Their fashion gushed through every limb of life.
“I didn’t consider myself a fashion designer at all at the time of punk. I was just using fashion as a way to express my resistance and to be rebellious”
2. BEING ORTHODOX JUST WON’T CUT IT
Unorthodox fashion moments championed by Vivienne Westwood are innumerable. Going with the flow was quite simply not in her repertoire. Whether it’s being one of the first fashion houses to forefront androgynous styling, casting men in romantic dresses and women in broad tailoring, or sending a topless Kate Moss down the runway licking a Magnum (and some years later petting a live bunny), Vivienne Westwood epitomized eccentricity. Yet, her idiosyncrasies and quirks weren’t without a blueprint.
Vivienne’s stunts always sought to highlight societal irregularities or forefront a new way of thinking. One of the most distinctly unorthodox Vivienne moments has to have been her impersonation of Margaret Thatcher 1989. Westwood iconically dressed up and posed as Thatcher, reportedly in a dress that the prime minister had ordered and then cancelled, and her image was accompanied by the derisive statement “This Woman Was Once Punk”. To simply criticise Thatcher’s policies and hypocrisies was far too mainstream for the artful Dame. She needed to collide the politics with popular culture, and what better way than using the press, media, and fashion teams she knew so well. Her tongue-in-cheek editorial image was resultantly plastered all over billboards at London Fashion Week, this wasn’t just any cover. This was a Vivienne cover, entrenched in mockery and protest, rallying a generation of punk rockers to foreground their political opinions.
The publicity stunt early in her career arguably set the tone just right for everything that was to come, this was Vivienne Westwood, and she was going to do things her way. Her rallying with politics never did quite come to an end, and the image of our beloved fashionista driving a tank towards David Cameron’s home, is something that will be imprinted on the minds of many for year to come. Don’t do it the traditional way, it doesn’t have the same pizazz.
“I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics”
“The only possible affect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas”
3. DON’T DARE BE OPINIONLESS – “Put a spoke in the system!” 1
Vivienne is well remembered for her long-standing battle in re-scripting the fashion industry to be more sustainable and socially conscious. Renowned for her environmental campaigning, Vivienne worked adamantly with the likes of PETA, The Environmental Justice Foundation, Cool Earth, The Ethical Fashion Initiative and more. She certainly loved and existed in the glamour of the fashion industry, but she also most certainly held a damming critique about this visage of glitz. Her Britney-esque shaved head of 2014 was supposedly an aesthetic nod to the culture she was trying to rupture. She told The Guardian in the same year, “Climate change, not fashion, is my priority now”, and staged her wittily named “Fash Mob” that saw models carry placards through the streets of London the following year.
Vivienne’s work bridged not only the worrying exponential growth of fashion, and the resultant lack of regulation and consciousness, but more social causes too, as she became a key campaigner for the likes of AIDS research and nuclear disarmament. She was a talented and unparalleled designer, but that didn’t mean she was boxed into one pen. Vivienne used her platform to forge a voice and opinion applicable to each and every sector, no matter the depth of her knowledge or expertise. So, in seemingly Vivienne fashion, if you think something, you should say it. And, if you don’t think anything … hurry up and get learning.
4. BEING THE RAGE IS NOT ALL THAT
Westwood’s shows have always been marked with shameless and gritty ideas, rather than an awareness of placating industry standards. Her emergence into runway culture began with her first show entitled “Pirates”, followed by her second entitled “Witches”, both of which tugged on whimsical ideas and character playing. From the out-set, she made it clear she wasn’t here to play into trends and fads, or whatever the onlookers at the time considered “pretty”. Her brazenness got people talking; she wanted the words to be speeding out of the attendees’ lips and spilling into the city. The focus seemed to be more on the wearer, and the feeling and the sentiment the clothing elicited, rather than on the consumerist reception of the collection. The later eroticism of her 1994 show “Café Society” was speculated to even annoy some press and key industry players, who deemed it distracting. But, yet again, being “liked” was absent from Vivienne’s agenda.
Throughout the years, Vivienne Westwood has encapsulated everything “anti”. Herself and her designs are all rooted in a deep, unruly counter culture. In 2008, in an interview with The Guardian, she even surprisingly named herself an “anti-feminist”. Whilst all of Vivienne’s work, opinions, and politics seem to align her as an extremely inclusive individual, and someone we would most certainly suppose a feminist (having battled her way through a male dominated industry), perhaps we are missing the point. Vivienne was anti-everything, because she quite abruptly refused to be defined and stick with the status-quo. Her role as a thinker and creator was ever developing, and perhaps this is why she shunned such labels. Moreover, in interviews she had cited that her uneasiness with the modern concept of feminism, was its recent development in tandem with the notion of heroism. She asserted that she most definitely did believe the position and status of women worldwide needed altering, but she didn’t like the ‘in trend’ nature of feminism in the context of the privileged Western World. Despite believing in the same essentialist principles of equality, Vivienne vetoed being named in a category she had come to see being too closely entwined with shifting cultural trends and popularity. She would think what she would think, but she didn’t need to be part of something “in vogue”.
“The sexiest people are thinkers. Nobody’s interested in somebody who’s just vain with a hole in their head, talking about the latest thing—there is no latest thing. It’s all rubbish”
5. GET A LIFE! It’s all just a bit of a laugh.
Our incredible Dame Vivienne Westwood not only rocked the fashion industry, impacting the lives of so many in her wake, but she did so with a distinctly loveable and catchy feeling of not giving a damn. Our rebel queen was the epitome of grounded amusement and hilarity, no matter how far she soared into celebrity status. Her memoirs published in 2016, and entitled “Get A Life!”, is a clear hint at her frivolous attitude to all things superfluous and nonsensical in the mess and magnificence of our modern world. Entitling this article, and encapsulating everything oh so Westwood, was her knicker-less accepting of an OBE from the Queen. An anti-establishment and punk-rock stunt? Maybe. But an action of frivolity and playfulness to hook both press and public, and force a giggle? Definitely. Essentially, according to Vivienne, you have a life, a voice, and an opinion – use it, but play with it. (And never doubt the power of a bit of comedy!) 1. Adams, William Lee (2 April 2012). “Vivienne Westwood – All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons – TIME”. Time. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
“I’ve been asked what would I ban immediately if I could. Advertising”.
5. GET A LIFE! It’s all just a bit of a laugh.
Our incredible Dame Vivienne Westwood not only rocked the fashion industry, impacting the lives of so many in her wake, but she did so with a distinctly loveable and catchy feeling of not giving a damn. Our rebel queen was the epitome of grounded amusement and hilarity, no matter how far she soared into celebrity status. Her memoirs published in 2016, and entitled “Get A Life!”, is a clear hint at her frivolous attitude to all things superfluous and nonsensical in the mess and magnificence of our modern world. Entitling this article, and encapsulating everything oh so Westwood, was her knicker-less accepting of an OBE from the Queen. An anti-establishment and punk-rock stunt? Maybe. But an action of frivolity and playfulness to hook both press and public, and force a giggle? Definitely. Essentially, according to Vivienne, you have a life, a voice, and an opinion – use it, but play with it. (And never doubt the power of a bit of comedy!)1. Adams, William Lee (2 April 2012). “Vivienne Westwood – All-TIME 100 Fashion Icons – TIME”. Time. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
