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Vivienne Westwood, the influential fashion maverick who played a key role in the punk movement, died on Friday at 81.
The eponymous Westwood fashion house announced his death on social media platforms, saying he died peacefully. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Westwood’s fashion career began in the 1970s with the explosion of punk, when his radical approach to urban street style took the world by storm. But he continued to enjoy a long career highlighted by a string of triumphant runway shows in London, Paris, Milan and New York.
Westwood’s name became synonymous with style and attitude even as he shifted his focus from year to year. His range is vast and his work is unpredictable.
As he grew up, he looked beyond fashion, with his designs displayed in museum collections around the world.
The young woman who has scorned the British establishment has finally become one of its leading lights, and she uses her elite position to lobby for environmental reform even though she kept her hair dyed bright orange color which is her trademark.
A career of contradictions
Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, said Westwood will be celebrated for pioneering the punk look, pairing a radical fashion approach with the anarchic punk sound developed by the Sex Pistols, managed by his then-partner, Malcolm McLaren.
“They gave the punk movement a look, it was stylish, and it was so radical that it had nothing to do with the past,” Bolton said.
“Ripped shirts, safety pins, provocative slogans. He introduced postmodernism. It was very influential from the mid-’70s. The punk movement never went away – it’s part of our fashion vocabulary. Now it’s mainstream.”
Westwood’s long career was full of contradictions: He was a lifelong rebel who was honored several times by the Queen. He dresses like a teenager despite being in his 60s and is an outspoken advocate against global warming, warning of planetary doom if climate change goes unchecked.
He is also a vocal supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
In her punk days, Westwood’s clothes were often intentionally shocking: T-shirts decorated with pictures of naked men, and “slave pants” with sadomasochistic overtones were standard fare in her popular London store.
But Westwood was able to make the transition from punk to haute couture without fail, so that his career continued without stooping to self-caricature.
Westwood’s work is said to be provocative, transgressive
“He’s always trying to reinvent fashion. His work is provocative, it’s transgressive. It’s deeply rooted in the British tradition of pastiche and irony and satire. He’s very proud of England, and still sends it up,” said Bolton. .
One of the transgressive and controversial designs featured a swastika, an inverted image of Jesus Christ on the cross and the words “Destroy.”
In his autobiography written with Ian Kelly, he said it was part of a statement against politicians who tortured people, citing Chile’s Augusto Pinochet. When asked if she regretted the swastika design in a 2009 interview with Time magazine, Westwood said no.
“I don’t, because we’re just saying to the older generation, ‘We don’t accept your values or taboos, and you’re all fascists,'” he replied.
He approached his work with enthusiasm in the early years, but over time seemed to tire of the fuss and buzz.
After decades of designing, he sometimes talks wistfully about moving beyond fashion to focus on environmental issues and educational projects.
“Fashion can be boring,” she told The Associated Press after unveiling one of her new collections at a 2010 show. “I’m trying to find something else to do.”
At the time, he was talking about plans to start a television series about art and science.
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