Main image: Vivienne Westwood, 1999. Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer
Thu 29 Dec 2022 16.39 EST First published on Thu 29 Dec 2022 16.39 EST
Dame Vivienne Westwood, photographed here in her studio in London in 2007, was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in the village of Tintwistle, Derbyshire, on 8 April 1941.
Having been a primary school teacher, jewellery and clothes designer, and mother, Westwood’s raison d’être arrived with the punk movement, of which she was an instrumental element. Here she is on stage with the Sex Pistols at Notre Dame Hall in Leicester Square, London, on 15 November 1976.
Vivienne Westwood met Malcolm McLaren in the early 70s. He had a shop on Kings Road in London that became the seminal boutique SEX, a hangout for the fledgling punk movement. Here is a shot from 1976 in the shop showing Sex Pistol Steve Jones, an unknown model, future journalist/broadcaster Alan Jones, future Pretenders bandleader Chrissie Hynde, punk scenester and icon Jordan, and Westwood.
At the end of 1976, SEX became Seditionaries, another influential store that produced some amazing T-shirts worn by Siouxsie (later brought back into fashion by Cara Delevingne). This picture shows Vivienne with her then partner in business and life, Malcolm McLaren, in 1977.
In 1980, Malcolm McLaren persuaded the two guitarists and drummer of Adam and the Ants to leave the band and form Bow Wow Wow. Lead singer Annabella Lwin, 14, was added, and Westwood set to work styling the band with a pirate-meets-apache look. Here, Westwood works with Annabella in a studio in Old Street, London. The following year, 1981, she had her first catwalk show, which was titled Pirate.
Westwood was first awarded the prestigious title of British designer of the year in 1990, and here she is receiving the award at the Royal Albert Hall accompanied by her then muse, Sarah Stockbridge. She won the award again the following year.
As time passed, Westwood began to be recognised by the establishment. Here she is being greeted by Princess Diana in November 1991 at the Carnival of the Birds, a charity event for the RSPB held at the Royal Opera House, London.
In 1992 Westwood received her OBE from Queen Elizabeth II. She caused a furore by going commando to Buckingham Palace. ‘I wished to show off my outfit by twirling the skirt. It did not occur to me that, as the photographers were practically on their knees, the result would be more glamorous than I expected,’ she later explained.
Photograph: Martin Keene/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Naomi Campbell falls over while wearing mock crocodile shoes with 5in platform soles and 12in heels at the Vivienne Westwood show during Paris fashion week, June 1993.
February 1997: Vivienne Westwood made a triumphant return to Britain at the end of the catwalk show for her autumn/winter 1997/8 collection. It was the first time she had displayed a collection at London Fashion Week since 1990.
Eccentric former boxer Chris Eubank modelled a Westwood creation at her show in Glasgow in January 1999. She has always had a penchant for the unusual.
March 2004 saw the V&A host a Vivienne Westwood retrospective exhibition to celebrate her 34 years in fashion – the largest exhibition ever devoted to a living British fashion designer. The exhibition toured the world for over four years.Photograph: Sarah Lee Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Westwood with her family in 2004: Joseph Corre (her son with Malcolm McLaren), Core Corre, Serena Rees, Dora Swire (Vivienne’s mother) and Ben Westwood (her son from her first marriage with Derek Westwood).
Pamela Anderson was another example of Westwood’s penchant for unusual or unexpected models. Here, she is having a moment in March 2009 at the Gold Label fashion show Ready to Wear, autumn/winter 2009, during Paris Fashion Week.
In October 2013, Westwood attended a protest outside the Russian Embassy in London in support of the 30 Greenpeace activists charged with piracy at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic. Westwood had always been a protester, standing against fracking and atomic weapons and championing the causes of bees and human rights.
September 2013. Model Lily Cole dances on stage prior to the Vivienne Westwood Red Label show during London Fashion Week SS14 at the German Gymnasium in London.
