Vivienne Westwood: The Mother of Punk

Viviene Westwood

Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood was a British designer and businesswoman. She is known for bringing modern punk and new wave styles into the mainstream.

Her fame began when she designed clothing for the boutique known as SEX, which she and Malcolm McLaren (manager of bands like the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls) owned on Kings Road, a street considered the center of art, fashion, and music in London.

The Sex Pistols began wearing her designs, which brought them significant exposure. Westwood later opened four more stores in London and eventually expanded throughout Great Britain and the rest of the world.

Westwood believed in expression through art and fashion, using it as a means of social commentary. Thanks to her and McLaren, the punk scene of the 1970s was heavily influenced. Her merchandise promoted political causes such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, climate change, and civil rights for marginalized groups.

 

Life and Career

Early Years

Westwood was born on April 8, 1941, in Hollingworth, Cheshire, a town near Manchester. Her parents were Gordon Swire, a warehouse worker at an aircraft factory, and Dora Swire, who had married just before World War II.

At 17 (1958), she moved with her family to the large town of Harrow, where she took jewelry and silversmithing courses at Westminster College, formerly known as The Harrow Art School. However, after one semester, she decided to drop out because she "didn't know how a working-class person could make a living from art."

After working in a factory and studying to become a teacher, she became a primary school teacher. During this time, she began creating her own jewelry and selling it on Portobello Road, home to one of London's largest street markets.

In 1962 she met Derek Westwood, an apprentice at the Hooverfactory in Harrow. When they married, she designed her own wedding dress, and a year later she had her first child, Benjamin. After she met McLaren, her marriage ended, and McLaren and Westwood moved to Balham, where their son Joseph was born in 1967.

Contributions

Westwood was one of the pioneers of punk fashion in the 1970s. Her emerging designs reflected the social, economic, and political contexts of Britain in the 1970s. Both the boutique's name and interior design changed throughout the era to reflect these evolving designs and inspirations. The boutique is still located at its original address, 430 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, and has been called Worlds End since 1979. It closed briefly in 1980.

McLaren and Westwood were both highly entrepreneurial. Some of the names they used included Let It Rock, Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, Sex, and Seditionaries.

The name changes helped attract punks to the store and generated significant marketing, which propelled it to a surge in popularity. Westwood's designs became iconic, and she was described as a meticulous researcher. Westwood was also the one who began to challenge gender norms and promote experimentation in her designs.