April 8, 2023 |
In Vivienne Westwood’s hands, anarchy and romance existed as one. The godmother of punk was totally fearless in her approach to fashion: her goal was never simply to design clothes. In her later years, the trailblazing force, who was born to working-class parents in Tintwistle, Derbyshire, and passed away last December aged 81, used dress as a vehicle to speak about the urgency of climate change and vocalise her support for the causes she believed in, whether that was anti-capitalism or an end to fracking. Her mantra of “Buy less, love more” has been adopted by legions of designers and industry changemakers who’ve charged forward on their own sustainable revolution. Here, some of her admirers and friends pay tribute to the great Dame. Long live Queen Viv. Paul Toner
RICCARDO TISCI, designer
I first fell in love with Vivienne and her work in the very early days of being a student in London – her influence was everywhere. I remember seeing the tartan, the attitude, the styling, everywhere I turned… in the clubs, on the streets, in my college hallways. I had never seen anything like it. The rebellion, the honesty, the creativity, the romance. She influenced me in so many ways, not only then, but still today.
To be able to work with her more recently was, therefore, one of my biggest dreams realised. To celebrate someone who brought me so much inspiration was incredibly surreal and very, very special. She came to the collaboration with so much generosity, kindness, humour and punk-ness. It is a moment I will never forget.
IRINA SHAYK, supermodel
For me, Vivienne Westwood was and always will be an incarnation of freedom. I admired her talent and fearless creativity. She has been a force in fashion who defined everything else rather than being defined, a true legend. It was a great honour to be part of her final campaign. Vivienne’s legacy will never be forgotten.
KATE MOSS, supermodel
I first fell in love with Westwood the label sitting behind Keith Martin [who later modelled for D&G] on the bus in Croydon in the mid-’80s. He was dressed head-to-toe from the Mini–Crini collection; he looked so cool and I wanted it all. I then fell in love with Vivienne herself when I did my first show for her. We became great friends, she came to my parties. She was always punk rock and always my inspiration.
LAURA MCCUAIG, Global Head of Communications, Vivienne Westwood
The most important thing Vivienne taught me was to use every opportunity you have, so here it is: protect the freedom to protest. Stand for freedom of speech – “Free Julian Assange”. Become your best self. Save the NHS and pay nurses properly. Stop climate change. Stop war. Become a freedom fighter for a better world.
Support www.theviviennefoundation.com Vivienne, we love you.
SUSIE CAVE, designer and founder of The Vampire’s Wife
My relationship with Vivienne began as I was reapplying my lipstick at the dinner table at La Coupole in Paris when I was about 23.
I was very excited to meet her, as I had known about her since I was 13, since my best friend Tammy, who is the daughter of John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, had arrived at school after half-term wearing a pirate outfit from head to toe! From that moment Vivienne became my hero because the unabashed costuming of the pirate look showed us young girls that we could be anything we wanted: no boundaries, no borders. Tammy had been completely transformed. The clothes were hellishly expensive but it didn’t matter; it just showed that you could make your own, and the more shameless the better!
At La Coupole I was trying to hide that I was putting my lipstick on at the table when Vivienne spoke these words to me: “I really like the way you’re doing that, Susie, it’s very old-fashioned.” I remember very clearly the things she said to me. She was so direct and I love that about her. Even when it’s not always what you want to hear!
Once, at the Les Bains Douches [nightclub] in Paris, she spoke to me on the dance floor. I must have been a bit drunk and was moaning about how much I hated being in Paris at that moment. She said, “Well, what are you doing here then?” A perfectly normal question, but with Vivienne I always felt challenged to the core of my being by her ferocious intelligence. Challenged not just by her words but by the very nature of her clothes and how they dared you to wear them, to ride strong and proud over the stares and looks of disdain when you stepped out on to the streets, head held high with a feeling of “This Is Who I Am. Make Way!”
To be chosen by Vivienne to work for her was the greatest honour. Those times were very special and I am so grateful that I experienced them with Vivienne and Andreas [her husband], and, of course, [Vivienne’s muse] Sara Stockbridge, who in my opinion is just the greatest girl ever to walk the earth – I was in love with her, awed by her. I often played the man when we walked out together; she was so utterly feminine and beautiful. I have a perfect vision of Sara in a tiny black velvet mini-skirt, corset, white stockings and frilly lace knickers, with her blonde hair in golden curls, walking down the King’s Road. Cars were colliding as she waved at them, people stopping in their tracks and just gawping, because of the extreme sexiness of the cut of the clothes and the quote on her T-shirt, which read: “The Truth Loves To Go Naked.”
Vivienne was the wildest of them all. An unstoppable force that continues to this day. Her shows were insane, just sweet anarchy, and to be a part of them so early in my career transformed me and gave me a voice – as she did to so many people – to just be the person I wanted to be. She was the ship’s captain, our supreme leader and we were her Godless figureheads dressed in her crazy, scandalous clothing. I wouldn’t trade those years for anything. They made me.
STEPHEN JONES, milliner
It wasn’t love, it was terror! When I first went into the shop Sex in 1976 on a Saturday afternoon, I was completely intimidated but absolutely blown away. These were clothes and a point of view that never existed before. Then, over the years, we worked together and became firm friends. However, the joy of Vivienne was that she always gave me a slight sense of terror, because she always wanted my best and things I had never thought of.
CHARLES JEFFREY LOVERBOY, designer
I felt truly and utterly in love with Vivienne Westwood after I watched the three-part documentary series Painted Ladies. It’s a fun and playful set of videos from 2012 that celebrates her ethos, her viewpoint on history and fashion, how you can use it to provoke society and how this stimulates critical thinking. I adored how it was just there on YouTube. It felt like my little secret. And it was incredibly useful as a tool to teach students how to view fashion from a romantic viewpoint.
I met her only once. I was wearing a blue silk Galliano suit and had a big black beard. She told me she liked my Scottish accent and I told her I loved painted ladies. Then she gave me a big smile.
MATTY BOVAN, designer
Growing up as a teenager in York there wasn’t much exposure to fashion, but as I started developing an interest in textiles at school I bought an issue of Vogue and discovered a photo of Vivienne’s work. This was pretty much all pre-internet, so it was harder to really research when I was a teenager.
I can clearly remember when I first saw Vivienne’s clothes in real life; it was in her shop in Liverpool and I had never ever seen such fabrics and shapes before that day. I remember the strong smell of [her perfume] Boudoir in the shop and I had never wanted anything more. She changed my life. Without her the world of modern fashion would look entirely different. Both her and Andreas are great at making you challenge what you conceive fashion to be and still making it so desirable. Design starts and ends with Vivienne, for me.
Vivienne has a wide legacy and her designs will go down in history, but so will all her other important work, her manifestos and climate change work. Vivienne wanted to inspire people and educate them, but then get them to educate themselves.
More importantly, she wanted to question the status quo, so I feel she has many important legacies that will live on. I really admired the passion she had to talk about ideas and educate people around her. We need more people like her with gumption and grit and determination.
To all the kids growing up out there, not necessarily from that background, who hadn’t been exposed to fashion, they saw something of themselves in Vivienne’s work, myself included. She gave inspiration to millions of people, but especially to young people trying to understand themselves and discover fashion and identity though creativity and not status. Her work will continue through her design legacy.
MANDI LENNARD, PR legend and founder of Mandi’s Basement
She has a vital legacy and is consistently the number one designer that fashion students reference. Vivienne created a portal for fashion that celebrated Britishness and punk spirit when in the early days the fashion media were known to almost strangle homegrown talent. She had an army across the creative industries, many of whom started out working for her. A creative director told me that when they worked for her, she gave them Fridays off to go to galleries. She consumed classical culture and was inspired by rococo paintings by people like François Boucher. I remember at one show, which was an afternoon tea in Soho, the models Sara Stockbridge and Tizer Bailey were strutting among the tables to The Nutcracker Suite. When we bought her clothes in for Browns, which must have been in 1991, she’d cycle down South Molton Street wearing bicycle clips to check out her windows. I’ve been in the industry for more than 30 years and each designer I’ve supported hero-worships her.
ANDRE WALKER, designer and creative director
When I discovered the connection between what I knew as punk, Vivienne Westwood, Malcom McLaren, Johnny Rotten, the Sex Pistols and more opened the doors even further to my dreams of fashion. Leisure, anger, self-protection, rebellion and my first sense of the anti-establishment came from an innate sense of being and feeling different anyway. The aggressive nature of Viv’s designs fit perfectly with the crazy independent spirit of changing moods she welcomed in her artistic life. Vivienne encouraged all of us through her daring. I transformed a medical scrub uniform into a fictitious band T-shirt once. It was drawn with textile paint and spelled out “Jimmy Sick and The Anemics”.
Vivienne truly embodies the archetype of the romantic, intellectual designer who was also quite willing to hilariously share her findings on so much. I just learned she was once a primary school teacher, which totally makes sense to me now.
Photography by Andreas Kronthaler. Taken from issue 70 of 10 Magazine – ROMANCE, REBEL, RESISTANCE – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
