Vivienne Westwood, eclectic designer and activist, queen of punk culture and devoted to the environmental cause, has died in London at the age of 81.
It is hard to say what Vivienne Westwood will be remembered for most — whether for her political commitment, the cornerstone of her work in recent years, or for having been the promoter of punk aesthetics. A designer almost by accident, Westwood was always driven by an incredible passion: the same passion that made her the defining designer of the London underground scene, and that later led her to take sides and adopt uncomfortable positions.
"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. She led an extraordinary life. Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years have been immense and will continue into the future" — these were the words used to announce her passing on the brand's Instagram profile. And further: "The world needs people like Vivienne to make it a better place."
Born on 8 April 1941 in Derbyshire, in a British village with a name that sounds like a tongue-twister — Tintwistle — she arrived in London in 1957 with her family, where she enrolled at art school, but only for one semester. She had no formal training in fashion, but learned how to make clothes as a teenager by following patterns and taking apart second-hand garments she found at markets to understand their cut and construction. She was intuitive and brilliant, but above all she rejected conventions.
Despite her love of fashion, she had begun working as a primary school teacher after separating from her first husband, Derek Westwood. It was only in the 1960s, when she met and began a relationship with Malcolm McLaren — who was at the time manager of various musical acts, including the Sex Pistols — that Vivienne Westwood put into practice what she had learned by dissecting vintage clothing and gave free rein to her creativity. The turning point of her life came in 1971, when she and McLaren opened Let it rock, a tiny shop on King's Road in Chelsea that quickly became the mecca for all lovers of punk aesthetics and for a great many musicians.
Safety pins, tartan print, images of the Queen: her deep love for her country and for British culture never prevented her from taking those aesthetic canons and reworking them, subverting them more often than not, but always using her ironic and subversive approach to give voice to social critique and to stand on the side of those in difficulty. By mixing historical references, classic tailoring and romantic elements with provocative garments and hard, openly political messages, Westwood became one of the most beloved designers in the United Kingdom and played an active role in building — and above all in cementing and keeping alive — punk aesthetics and culture, bringing them all the way to the catwalk. The first show of her eponymous brand, in 1981, bore a more than evocative title: Pirates. A few years later she launched one of her most iconic pieces, once again steeped in social critique and feminist struggle: the Statue of Liberty corset, an intimate and restrictive garment from the wardrobe of 18th-century ladies that the designer transformed into a provocative instrument of sexual empowerment.
Despite the Vivienne Westwood brand having become over the years a business worth several million pounds, the designer never lost sight of her activist streak and never stopped taking political stances. In 1989 she appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine dressed as Margaret Thatcher, with a coverline reading: "This woman was once a punk." Furthermore, her relationship with — and critique of — the monarchy was always a key element of her thinking: so much so that when, in 1992, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire medal by Queen Elizabeth in person, Westwood arrived at Buckingham Palace to receive the honour wearing a grey suit, but once outside she did a pirouette in front of the photographers to show the world that she was wearing no underwear.
It was around the mid-2000s that Westwood began to take a growing interest in the climate crisis, turning her political activity towards issues increasingly linked to environmental sustainability. In 2007 she published a manifesto entitled Active Resistance to Propaganda, in which she wrote: "We have a choice: to become more cultivated, and therefore more human — or not to choose, to be the destructive and self-destructive animal, the victim of our own intelligence." She was one of the first luxury designers to take such radical positions on the environment and consumption. "I just tell people, stop buying clothes": hers was a thoroughly anti-consumerist stance. "Culture is the antidote to propaganda," she would say, and with her clothes she sought above all to create culture.
Culture, but action too: in 2015, she drove a mock tank to the Oxfordshire home of then Prime Minister David Cameron to protest against fracking, and that same year, at the presentation of the Vivienne Westwood Red Label SS 2016 collection, she turned the catwalk into a fully-fledged demonstration, complete with placards and models covered in crude oil. The trigger had been Cameron's granting of twenty-seven new licences to carry out fracking in the north of Britain. In addition, in 2012 she had announced her environmentalist project at the closing ceremony of the London Paralympics, unfurling a banner bearing the name of the initiative: "Climate Revolution"; in 2013 she had designed the Greenpeace Save the Arctic logo; and over the years she had supported the causes of Amnesty International.
In 2021, together with other British designers such as Stella McCartney and Erdem, she had been a signatory to an open letter to Boris Johnson calling for a ban on the sale of fur across the country: Westwood was one of the most active designers in the campaign, rallying behind the hashtag #FurFreeBritain. That same year in Florence, when she was awarded a lifetime achievement prize at the Florence Biennale, she read her Letter to save the planet, which went as follows: "This is my opportunity to make the world understand what is happening. Until now I didn't have the solution; now I do. The solution is that we must change the economy. Of course we must stop wars, but above all change the economy, because it creates pollution." Right up until the end she continued to update her blog, No man's land, where she gathered reflections, ideas from activists and letters from ordinary people: just last month she had released a statement of support for the climate protesters who had thrown soup on Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", writing: "Young people are desperate. They wear a T-shirt that says: Just Stop Oil. They are doing something."
Ever since the designer turned her attention to environmental issues and protection of the planet and animal rights became a priority, Vivienne Westwood centred her output on a cruelty-free philosophy: her garments are free from animal skins and furs, and she was an active supporter of Peta, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights organisation that has had the greatest impact on the world of fashion. Fully aware that she was part of a system — that of textiles — which is highly polluting, the designer had long since begun trying to minimise her brand's impact on the environment, choosing to use natural materials worked in ways that pollute as little as possible, while at the same time raising consumers' awareness of the importance of the quality of clothes rather than quantity.