Vivienne Westwood And Zandra Rhodes
Published on Nov 19, 2015
A presentation about Vivienne Westwood, the punk fashion movement, and my art project on the subject.
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Vivienne WestwooD
Punk Fashion
Vivienne Westwood
1970s
Vivienne Westwood was born as Vivienne Isabel Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire, England on April 8th, 1941.
At the age of 17, Vivienne's family moved to Harrow in the country of Middlesex, where the future fashion icon found work at a local factory and eventually enrolled at a teacher training school.
"I lived in a part of the country that had grown up in the Industrial Revolution," she once said. "I didn't know about art galleries…I'd never seen an art book, never been to the theatre."
She'd married Derek Westwood, with whom she had son, Ben, and embarked on work as a teacher.
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Her first marriage dissolved and she met Malcolm Mclaren, an art student. With Mclaren, Westwood had a second son, Joseph.
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Westwood, who'd begun making jewelry on the side, was introduced to a new world of creative freedom and the power art had on the political landscape. "I latched onto Malcolm as somebody who opened doors for me," Westwood said. "I mean, he seemed to know everything I needed at the time."
Vivienne never had any formal design training.
In 1971, Mclaren opened a boutique shop at 430 Kings Road in London and started filling it with Westwood's designs. While the name of the shop seemed to be in constant flux—it was changed five times—it proved to be an important fashion center for the punk movement.
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When Mclaren became manager of the Sex Pistols, it was Westwood's designs that dressed the band and help it carve out its identity.
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She's constantly been ahead of the curve, not just influencing fashion, but often times dictating it.
Westwood went an entirely new direction with her Pirate collection of frilly shirts and other attire. Her styles have also included the mini-crini of the 1980s and the frayed tulle and tweed suit of the 1990s.
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Coupled with Westwood's unconventional style sense, is an outspokenness and daring that demonstrates a certain level of fearlessness about her and her work. In one famous incident she impersonated the Margaret Thatcher on the cover of an British magazine.
Westwood's influence is hard to deny. Twice she has been named British designer of the year and was awarded the O.B.E. (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1992.
In 1993, ten years after Westwood and Mclaren split, Westwood married for a second time, to her assistant, Andreas Kronthaler, who is 25 years her junior. Today, Kronthaler is her design partner. The couple resides in South London.
Westwood's work was recently in the exhibit“Punk: Chaos to Couture,” the latest spectacle from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Vivienne Westwood
2013
My Project
Photo by Josh Kenzer
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Ta-da!
(Just like Vivi!)
