Jun 30 2008
Vivienne Westwood
‘Britain’s most consistently original, outrageous, controversial designer’
Vivienne Westwood has had an insatiable appetite for anarchic outrageousness. She has never lost her power to shock, and her continued innovations make her one of the most talked about fashion designers in the world.
Vivienne Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Derbyshire. She moved to London when she was 17. She began designing in 1971, using the shop at 430 Kings Road, London as a showcase for her ideas. With her changing ideas of fashion came the change of not only the name of shop, but the entire decor as well. In 1971, 430 Kings Road was known as “Let it Rock”… 1950’s Rock n Roll clothing sold at a time when “hippies” were still in fashion. In 1972, the name was changed to “Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die”. The shop had clothing for “Rockers” with zips and chains, and Zoot suits. By the mid 70’s, “Sex” was the shop’s new name. With 1976 came punk, followed by “World’s End” and the Pirate Collection.
The Pirate Collection was shown in March 1981, her first catwalk show at Olympia in London. The following year, in March 1983, Westwood began to show in Paris, the first British Designer to do so since Mary Quant. In Autumn 1984, Westwood was invited to show her collection in Tokyo with Hanae Mori, Calvin Klein, Claude Montana and Gianfranco Ferre at the “Best of Five”.
In 1989 Mr John Fairchild, President of Fairchild Publications and Editor of the fashion bible “Women’s Wear Daily”, rated Westwood one of the best six designers in the world, and the only woman amongst them, in his book “Chic Savages”.
In July 1990, she showed her first complete menswear collection in conjunction with Pitti Uomo in Florence. In January 1991, Vivienne Westwood was chosen to show in Tokyo once again, this time with Christian Lacroix, Isaac Mizrahi and Franco Moschino at The Fashion Summit.
Vivienne Westwood has an OBE for her services to the British Fashion Industry and has just been awarded the Queen’s Award for Export[/expand]
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