British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood died today, Dec. 29, 2022, in London at the age of 81.
The announcement was made on the designer’s official Instagram account on Thursday. “Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London,” the post said.
“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 post continued. “She led an amazing life. Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years has been immense and will continue into the future.”
“Vivienne considered herself a Taoist,” the post added. “She wrote, ‘Tao spiritual system. There was never more need for the Tao today. Tao gives you a feeling that you belong to the cosmos and gives purpose to your life; it gives you such a sense of identity and strength to know you’re living the life you can live and therefore ought to be living: make full use of your character and full use of your life on earth.’”
“The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” the post concluded.
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Andreas Kronthaler, Westwood’s husband and creative partner said in a statement, “I will continue with Vivienne in my heart. We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank you darling.”
Along with her designs, Westwood will also be remembered as always standing for justice and fairness and has been working on a plan to save the world. Shortly before she passed away, she said, “Julian Assange is a hero and has been treated atrociously by the UK government. Capitalism is a crime. It is the root cause of war, climate change and corruption.”
According to a statement from her brand, The Vivienne Foundation, a not-for-profit company, founded by Vivienne, her sons and granddaughter in late 2022, will officially launch next year to honor, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne’s life design and activism.
The Foundation’s goal is to raise awareness and create tangible change working with NGO’s and is built upon four pillars: Climate Change, Stop War, Defend Human Rights and Protest Capitalism. The Vivienne Foundation “exists to create a better world” and implement Vivienne’s plans, the statement added.
Born April 8, 1941, Westwood will be most remembered for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream in the 1970s.
She got her start in the industry by designing and making Teddy Boy clothes for her then partner Malcolm McLaren and in 1971 they opened a small boutique called Let it Rock at number 430 Kings Road in the Chelsea neighborhood of London.
A year later, Westwood’s interests had turned to biker clothing, zips, and leather. The shop re-branded with a skull and crossbones and was renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die.
Westwood and McLaren began to design their own t-shirts with provocative printed slogans, which led to their prosecution under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act; they responded by re-branding the shop once again and producing even more t-shirts featuring hard-core images.
By 1974 the shop was renamed Sex, a shop “unlike anything else going on in England at the time” they used the slogan ‘rubberwear for the office.’
The 1981 ‘Pirate’ Collection was Westwood and McLaren’s first official collaborative catwalk show. It informed the aesthetic of The World’s End Boutique with its pirate’s galleon and ship features. This collection was filled with romantic looks in gold, orange, and yellow which burst onto the London fashion scene, ensuring its place in the house’s history of influence.
In 1992, Westwood received an O.B.E at Buckingham Palace from her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll and was made an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art in London. She would later be made a Dame for services to fashion in 2006.
But it was during the late 1980s and early 1990s where Westwood’s heroes shifted from punks and ragamuffins to ‘Tatler’ girls wearing clothes that parodied the upper class. A chance encounter inspired one of her most important and influential collections, Autumn-Winter 1987 ‘Harris Tweed.’
Another notable Westwood show was her Autumn-Winter 1993/94 ‘Anglomania’ collection where she producing her own tartan and invented her own clan, MacAndreas. The Lochcarron of Scotland officially recognized the clan, which is a process that normally takes 200 years, a huge achievement for Westwood.
More recently, Westwood launched the Asics X Vivienne Westwood three-year collaboration in April 2019, and the Vivienne Westwood X Vans Anglomania capsule collection in September 2019.
The last physical Vivienne Westwood mainline show took place at Autumn-Winter 2019 London Fashion Week. From then on it was decided to go digital, for environmental reasons.
