Magazine

Vivienne Westwood, a Lifetime of Looks

With a mother who worked in a cotton mill and a father who hailed from a family of shoemakers, it might have seemed destined for Vivienne Westwood to pursue a staid career in fashion. Yet, the indelible mark she would eventually scrawl across the business and the broader culture owed instead to what she termed an “in-built perversity,” sparked by a seminal 1965 meeting with Malcolm McLaren. Together, the two went on to frame the visual language of punk. And when their partnership ended, Ms. Westwood continued alone in pursuit of what she once told the historian Jon Savage was her tendency to “react against anything orthodox,” ransacking the history of dress for bondage gear, corsetry (worn as outerwear), dandies’ finery, buccaneer’s raw hides, crinolines and clan tartans to push fashion insistently in the direction of her raw and edgy notions of beauty, her eclectic politics and her lifelong determination to kick out the jams and subvert all norms.

Ms. Westwood outside England’s Bow Street Magistrate’s Court, where she was facing a breach of the peace case.Credit…Peter Cade/Getty Images

Sid Vicious, left, with Ms. Westwood in an undated photo.Credit…Ian Dickson/Shutterstock
Ms. Westwood in London, 1982.Credit…Michael Putland/Getty Images
Ms. Westwood in front of her boutique in 1977.Credit…Elisa Leonelli/Shutterstock
Models wearing the designer’s clothes, outside the Worlds End Shop in London.Credit…Ted Polhemus/Pymca, via Shutterstock
Ms. Westwood, 1983.Credit…Andy Hosie/Mirrorpix, via Getty Images
From Ms. Westwood’s spring 1994 collection.Credit…Remy de la Mauvinere/Associated Press
From the designer’s fall/winter 1995-1996 collection.Credit…Verard Julien/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The designer, 1992.Credit…Norman Lomax/Shutterstock
Her fall/winter 1994-95 collection.Credit…Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ms. Westwood, center, posed with models wearing her designs after winning the Designer of the Year award for the second year running in 1991.Credit…Martyn Hayhow/Associated Press
From her spring/summer 1996 collection.Credit…Pierre Verdy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The designer with Naomi Campbell in New York, 1996.Credit…Rose Hartman/Archive Photos, via Getty Images
A model on the runway for Ms. Westwood’s fall/winter 1996-1997 show.Credit…Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Jerry Hall walks for the designer’s 1997 spring/summer collection show.Credit…Pierre Verdy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ms. Westwood arranged flowers on a hat for her 1999 spring/summer collection.Credit…Joel Robine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
At her fall/winter 1997-1998 show.Credit…Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A retrospective of Ms. Westwood’s work was shown at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in 2004.Credit…David Westing/Getty Images
The designer at the opening of her retrospective.Credit…Graeme Robertson/Getty Images
Ms. Westwood at “The Hunt Ball” exhibit, part of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “AngloMania, Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion” exhibition in 2006.Credit…Richard Drew/Associated Press
Ms. Westwood at the finale of her spring/summer 2005 show.Credit…Francois Guillo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A look from her fall/winter 2006-2007 show.Credit…/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPierre Verdy
The designer in Berlin, 2007.Credit…Axel Schmidt
A look from the spring 2010 collection.Credit…Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
From Ms. Westwood’s Red Label fall/winter 2013-2014 show.Credit…Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood spring/summer 2022 collection.Credit…Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Back to top button