VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Carlota Lopez
Feb 20, 2018
2 min read

Recently I had a seminar about a few brands and one that really caught my attention was Vivienne Westwood. To be honest I always thought about Vivienne Westwood like this very old brand so I was really surprised when I saw the campaigns and adverts for the brand. I loved it. Super fresh, different and unique.

I decided to do a deeper research on the brand and actually used some of that in my new project related to the perfume Industry.

Vivienne Westwood along with her partner Malcolm McLaren set up a stylistic revolution inspired by rebellion and in particular the 50s clothing, music and counter-culture. The first store opened in 1971 at Kings Road and was called "Let it Rock".

The designer was very genuine and with her own distinctive style but when she started getting more into rad stuff like biker clothing, zips, leather, safety pins and sex clothing, the brand was re-named. Too Fast To Live, To Young To Die. Skulls and crossbones started to appear regularly, alongside with ripped black T-shirts and glitter.

It was considered "A shop unlike anything else going on in England at the time".

It was all about the Youth.

As punk became an actual musical movement both designers jumped into the subculture, ending up changing the brand name again, this time to SEX.

SEX was an adverse reaction to all that retail and capitalism meant.

"Making money was never even a goal." - Malcolm McLaren

It was a genuine fetish shop, with opaque windows and the interior covered with a spongy, pink rubber to create the appearance of a womb. SEX was as much about attitude as it was about fashion. The designer fully embraced BDSM culture and made it central to her fashions.

By 1984 the couple separated and Vivienne Westwood decided to continue her designs in high- fashion, where she became and incredible sucessfully designer known around the world.

During this period Vivienne's heros changed from Punks to Tatler girls wearing clothes that parodied the upper class. She took inspiration from the Royal Family, black velvet, British fabrics, 18th century, oil paintings and high paltform shoes. She aimed to put women on a pedestal.

Vivienne Westwood believes (or at least believed) that fashion is a combination and exchange of ideas between France and England.

"On the English side we have tailoring and an easy charm, on the French side that solidity of design and proportion that comes from never being satisfied because something can always be done to make it better, more refined."

From 2000 to the present she begun to put historicism to the side and returned to a more asexual cut, exploring natural dynamics of fabrics.

I absolutely admire her now, I aspire to be someone as powerful, interesting and edgy as she is. My favourite thing about her is that she doesn't have the need to conform to society norms and she is not afraid of not being understood.

Young people are becoming to have a voice again and brands that acknowledge that are a win. She shocks and she knows that she does it.

"You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes."