Dame Vivienne Westwood was the idealistic anarchist who overthrew the status quo and changed Britain.
Dame Vivienne Westwood was a would-be revolutionary who detested corruption and universal injustice and was discouraged by youths’ apathetic passivity.
Punk was created by Vivienne Westwood, who also dominated high fashion and created an international empire. Dame Vivienne Westwood created the New Romantics movement, sent Naomi Campbell down the runway while wearing a traffic cone, and showed up unprepared to meet the Queen.
Westwood used clothing as a weapon. Of course, Dame Vivienne Westwood reasoned, dressing up made people attractive. However, the goal was to upend everything, to shatter dreary uniformity, and to create a better society.
The oldest of three children, Vivienne Isabel Swire was born on April 8, 1941, in the Derbyshire village of Tintwistle.
Her working-class parents were skilled craftspeople. They pushed her to create stuff, which Dame Vivienne Westwoodeagerly did. They were, however, extremely perplexed by their daughter’s reading addiction, even going so far as to pay her to destroy her library card.
Dame Vivienne Westwoodhad an admirable sense of self-worth and thought of herself as a master craftswoman. Dame Vivienne Westwoodviewed herself as “a type of champion” when attending grammar school in Glossop.
Dame Vivienne Westwoodsubsequently admitted, “honestly, I could have made a pair of shoes at age five.”
