Synopsis

From punk provocateur to celebrity couturier, Vivienne Westwood was one of the most influential artists of recent times. A true original who used clothes to express her ethos, often fusing anti-establishment values with high-end, corseted visuals. As an emerging designer in the seventies, Westwood, together with her then-partner Malcolm McLaren, was a key architect of the anarchic aesthetic known as punk, worn most notably by McLaren’s band the Sex Pistols. Safety pins, ripped clothes, visible seams and bondage trousers were made to shock, but also to instigate change; a theme that permeated Westwood’s work. From punk, Westwood looked to art and history, drawing inspiration for her Pirate collection and New Romantic outfits of the eighties, before closing out the decade with parodies of the upper classes in her now iconic bustle skirts and ‘mini-crini’ crinolines. In 1992, she received an OBE for her services to fashion design, topping it up in 2006 with a Damehood. Revered by royalty and rock stars alike, her eponymous label – now overseen by creative director Andreas Kronthaler, Westwood’s husband since 1992 – still resonates with celebrity clients worldwide. Fully illustrated throughout, Vivienne Westwood: Provocateur chronicles the celebrated fashion designer’s style, life and legacy.