Vivienne Westwood

British fashion designer and style icon Vivienne Westwood has died aged 81. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family, at her home in London on ...

The Vivienne Foundation, a not-for-profit company, founded by Westwood, her sons & granddaughter in late 2022, will officially launch next year. Westwood was an outspoken advocate for the planet, often promoting quality over quantity when it came to fashion consumption. Westwood was the only woman, the only Brit, and the only designer on his list who was not already a multi-million-dollar brand. And on Twitter, singer Boy George [wrote](https://twitter.com/boygeorge/status/1608589986663636992?s=46&t=tMddMm_UZ3Ynm0xkMkYFRA)"R.I.P. [wrote](https://www.instagram.com/p/CmxYbJzvmgW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=), "I will forever be grateful to have been in your orbit, because to me and most, in fashion and humanity, you, Vivienne, were the sun." To the fashion world she was a beloved character who energized and pushed the boundaries of the industry until her death. In his view, she was one of the six most influential designers of the 20th century, along with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Christian Lacroix and Emanuel Ungaro. (In 1989, she was still living in an ex-council flat in South London and was "virtually bankrupt," according to Jane Mulvagh's 1998 biography, "Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life." In 1992, Westwood married an Austrian design student, Andreas Kronthaler, 25 years her junior. She twirled sans culottes for photographers after receiving her Order of the British Empire from the Queen in 1992. "It changed the way people looked," Westwood told Time magazine in 2012. Her mother worked as a weaver at local cotton mills; her father came from a family of shoemakers.

The pioneer who brought punk-inspired creations to the mainstream has died aged 81.

As well as climate change, Westwood became a vocal supporter for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition to the US to face charges under the Espionage Act. I am grateful for the moments I got to share with you and Andreas." They shot to fame in 1976 wearing Westwood and McLaren's designs. The Victoria and Albert Museum, which houses some of her works, described Westwood as a "true revolutionary and rebellious force in fashion". Singer Boy George, who first met Westwood in the early 1980s, called her "great and inspiring" and "without question she is the undisputed Queen of British fashion". Westwood made her name with her controversial punk and new wave styles in the 1970s and went on to dress some of the biggest stars in fashion.

The pioneering designer made her name in the fashion industry with her androgynous designs, slogan t-shirts and irreverent attitude towards the ...

She held a large “climate revolution” banner at the 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony in London, and frequently turned her models into catwalk eco-warriors. Her sky-high platform shoes garnered worldwide attention in 1993 when model Naomi Campbell stumbled on the catwalk in a pair. From the late 1960s, she lived in a small flat in south London for some 30 years and cycled to work. Their son Ben was born in 1963, and the couple divorced in 1966. Because they keep on telling a story. “Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. But, ever keen to shock, Westwood turned up at Buckingham Palace without underwear – a fact she proved to photographers by a revealing twirl of her skirt. They are still telling it.” They had a son, Joe Corre, co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. “Nothing is interesting to me unless it’s got that element.” They have an identity. Favourite items included sleeveless black T-shirts, studded, with zips, safety pins or bleached chicken bones.

The pioneering fashion designer made a name for herself on the fashion scene in the 1970s, with her androgynous designs, slogan t-shirts and irreverent attitude ...

"Nothing is interesting to me unless it's got that element." "The only reason I am in fashion is to destroy the word 'conformity'," Ms Westwood said in her 2014 biography. The pioneering fashion designer made a name for herself on the fashion scene in the 1970s, with her androgynous designs, slogan t-shirts and irreverent attitude towards the establishment.

Vivienne Westwood aged four. · Punk rock group Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and friend designer Viviane Westwood outside Bow Street Magistrate Court, ...

Vivienne Westwood met McLaren in the early 70s. The two would go on to become close friends. “I wished to show off my outfit by twirling the skirt.

Iconoclastic British designer rose to prominence by outfitting the Sex Pistols as punk took off in the 1970s.

In 2020, she suspended herself in a birdcage to protest against the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition from the UK. Love you Viv,” tweeted Chrissie Hynde, the frontwoman of the Pretenders and a former worker at the couple’s store. As a vegetarian, Westwood lobbied the British government to [ban the retail sale of fur](https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/mar/16/top-fashion-designers-letter-to-pm-calls-for-ban-on-uk-fur-sales) alongside other top designers including Stella McCartney. Last month she made a statement of support for the climate protesters who threw soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, writing: “Young people are desperate. In 2022 she designed the suit and dress worn by Assange and his wife, Stella Moris, at their wedding. But she still found ways to shock: her Statue of Liberty corset in 1987 is credited as starting the “underwear as outerwear” trend. The pair opened a small shop on Kings Road in Chelsea in 1971 that became a haunt of many of the bands she outfitted, including the Sex Pistols, who were managed by McLaren. In 2007, she published a manifesto titled Born in the Derbyshire village of Tintwistle in 1941, Westwood’s family moved to London in 1957, where she attended art school for one term. She later told Dazed Digital that “the suit I wore had been ordered by Margaret Thatcher from Aquascutum, but she had then cancelled it”. Since her earliest punk days, Westwood remixed and inverted imagery drawn from the British monarchy. We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with.

Tributes have been pouring in for fashion legend and activist Vivienne Westwood following her death at the age of 81.

Boy George posted:" R.I.P to the great and inspiring Vivienne Westwood who lead us through punk and beyond. My deepest sympathies to Andreas and your family." I will forever be grateful to have been in your orbit , because to me and most , in fashion & in humanity, you, Vivienne, were the sun." You never failed to surprise and to shock. rest in love and Rest In Peace… The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better.”

Tributes have poured in following the death of Dame Vivienne Westwood, the pioneering British fashion designer, at the age of 81. Westwood died “peacefully ...

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Few individuals disrupted fashion quite like Vivienne Westwood, who has died aged 81. Known for her counterculture aesthetic and commitment to the ...

Westwood had male models wearing pearls, and the interviewer asked – to the giggles of the audience – “Tell me about the twinset and pearls for men, has it caught on? Westwood replied: “You might see your bank manager in five years wearing that” – proving she was far ahead of her time. We have been adapting the way we make our clothes and accessories over the last few years to reflect the growing urgency to change how the industry operates but, in this time of climate crisis, we must go further.” Westwood’s fashion was meant to challenge and subvert expectations. In 2012, Westwood appeared on the catwalk during London Fashion Week in a T-shirt saying ‘climate revolution’, and in 2015 she drove a tank near former prime minister David Cameron’s home to protest fracking. Girls stopped me in the street and said, ‘Look at the state of that’.” Fashion creates products which are too often disposable, and which – through their creation, distribution and eventual disposal – can have a disproportionately negative impact on our planet, its wildlife and people. I have not seen a lot of men wearing twinsets and pearls.” Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years has been immense and will continue into the future.” Some have struggled with Westwood’s message to ‘buy less’, while she still produced multiple new collections a year. [reading](https://www.instagram.com/p/CmxCSQ_rWxi/): “Vivienne continued to do the things she loved, up until the last moment, designing, working on her art, writing her book, and changing the world for the better. [The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/interview-vivienne-westwood-fashion-s-pearly-queen-1183477.html): “I was a punk before it got its name.

The fashion designer who aimed to destroy the word 'conformity' and who urged people to "just don't buy too much": Vivienne Westwood 1941-2022.

She famously dressed up as Margaret Thatcher in an Aquascutum suit ordered — and subsequently cancelled by the then PM — for a 1989 cover of Tatler, with the caption, “This woman was once a punk”. Even with her more affordable diffusion ranges, she was the antithesis of fast fashion. With him, she had her second son in 1967, Joe Corre, who went on to found lingerie label Agent Provocateur. (She was invited back for a CBE in 2006). The shopfront is still there at 430 Kings Road, its façade dominated by a giant clock forever spinning anti-clockwise. In 2007, she told an interviewer: “I don't feel comfortable defending my clothes. But if you've got the money to afford them, then buy something from me. In 1988, she met her third husband Andreas Kronthaler while teaching in Vienna; Kronthaler was an Austrian fashion student 25 years her junior whom she married in 1993, and with whom she would live and collaborate for the rest of her life. It was Kronthaler who persuaded her to leave the two-bedroom council flat and move to a house in nearby Clapham. Meanwhile, her business was growing, even though she was not at all business minded; so was her public recognition and reputation as a designer. As a climate activist, she was about as far from the Karl Lagerfelds of the fashion world as you could get: while he dreamed of marrying his cat, she was driving a white tank to David Cameron’s front lawn, in a protest against fracking. She was to fashion what Bowie was to music — a perpetually shape-shifting force, visionary and genre-creating — she continually invented and reinvented ideas, using couture as her medium.

Celebrities have paid tribute to Vivienne Westwood, with the world described as "already a less interesting place" following her death at the age of 81.

I am grateful for the moments I got to share with you and Andreas. In her own tribute to Westwood, Assange said: "Vivienne was a rebel at heart. rest in love and Rest In Peace… Her gift to us took our wedding to the next level so there was a lot of attention and she just had this incredible talent for visuals and for messaging. my inspiration and idol in all things". He said on Twitter: "Goodbye Vivienne Westwood.

Provocative, controversial and original, the British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who has died aged 81, may be remembered as the godmother of punk ...

Two queens died this year, the queen of England and the queen of fashion.” “It isn’t easy to be an edgy designer for 50 years, and she was steadfast. [Irish model, the Dubliner Vita Byrne Carty](https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/Fashion/la-dolce-vita-the-irish-student-modelling-for-vivienne-westwood-1.4394639), was one of the last to work with Westwood and Kronthaler, in London, on a video for the 2021 spring-summer collection. Already ahead of the pack, Westwood had, three years previously, eschewed the catwalk for digital presentations; the collection was photographed on an iPhone with four models, including Westwood, Kronthaler and Sarah Stockton, Westwood’s long-term muse. I was expecting a firebrand with strong opinions; instead she appeared serene, was unfailingly polite, and expressed a strong interest in Georgian architecture. She always knew how to go too far, as Cocteau once said of the great Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.