A wee tour of Vivienne Westwood
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the presentation format PechaKucha, but it’s premise is simple: 20 slides appear for 20 seconds each, and you talk. We have an assignment at art school to prepare one on a topic of our choice, I am going thinking about the topic ‘Is good design good for business?’, but more on that in another blog post.
In preperation for our PechaKuch presentations we undertook what our tutor called a ‘PichiKichi’, which was 10 slides in 10 seconds. Each of us was given a designer. I am going to write about Jasper Morrison, who my friend Calum did a great presentation on, as I am a big fan. But I thought it would also be worth sharing a little of my (very brief- we only has 100 seconds!) presentation on the designer I was given: Vivienne Westwood.
Vivienne Westwood is a prolific fashion designer and businesswoman who has been a hugely influential figure in fashion, and conversely culture.
Vivienne Westwood’s carreer began when she met Malcolm McLaren, he was an art student who would later become the manager of the Sex Pistols.
In 1971 McLaren opened a boutique in London, and filled it with Vivienne’s designs. Over the years it changed its name many times, but is probably most famously known as ‘SEX’ which was its name from 1974.
In 1971 Vivienne dressed McLaren’s band, The Sex Pistols. She was instrumental in the development of their identity, which in turn shaped the entire punk movement.
Then in 1980 Vivienne dressed another of McLaren’s bands, Bow Wow Wow, in a pirate style. The following year, in 1981, she held her first Catwalk show which was entitled ‘Pirates’.
Vivienne worked with McLaren on a number of shows. Their last collaboration before they split was on ‘Witches’. Vivienne used New York artist Keith Haring’s work in her designs for this.
It’s hard to talk about Vivienne Westwood without talking about politics. She has always been intensely political. She famously dressed up as Margaret Thatcher on the cover of Tatler magazine. She actually wore a suit that Thatcher had ordered but not yet picked up, which irritated poor Maggie even more.
Now from one prime minister to another, Vivienne recently rode on the back of a tank to David Cameron’s home to protest against fracking. She has campaigned for lots of environmental issues and is a big supporter of sustainability in fashion.
Vivienne thinks we buy too many clothes. She thinks we should “buy less, choose well, and make it last”. This is an admirable ambition, and I would agree and want to apply that to product design as well as fashion. But Vivienne has been criticised on this because she sometimes releases up to 9 collections a year compared to a designer’s usual 2.
Vivienne is still prolific and influential today. Even her recent Spring 2016 ready-to-wear collection pushes boundaries and would shock many.
