'Hard, punchy, honest, right out there' - Designer Zandra Rhodes remembers Westwood

Record ID: 1704908

  • Title: 'Hard, punchy, honest, right out there' - Designer Zandra Rhodes remembers Westwood
  • Date: 30th December 2022
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - OCTOBER 1, 2010) (REUTERS) WESTWOOD WITH MODELS ON CATWALK AT END OF SHOW WESTWOOD SMILING
  • Embargoed: 13th January 2023 14:50
  • Keywords: Vivienne Westwood death fashion designer fashion designer Zandra Rhodes punk
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Celebrities,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA009959130122022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes on Friday (December 30) said news of Vivienne Westwood's death came as a "total surprise", as she remembers the late designer as being "'hard, punchy, honest, right out there" in personality and fashion.
    Speaking at the Fashion and Textile Museum she founded in 2003 in Bermondsey, south London, Rhodes said Westwood "revitalised street fashion, turning it into something totally different" with her "hard-hitting punk" from one end of London's infamous Kings Road.
    After opening her first shop on London's Fulham Road in 1967, Rhodes was part of a new wave of designers during the 1970s, with her clothes worn by both royals and film stars like Elizabeth Taylor.
    Rhodes said that although she and Westwood "somewhat clashed" as Rhodes was doing "chic punk", she admired Westwood for her fashion and her activism.
    "She always managed to remain hard and punchy ... a person who's always been honest to what the causes that she's representing. And she always represented that with great purity," said Rhodes.
    "I mean, we did have a somewhat clash when I was doing chic punk, and she'd say, that's not punk with those jewelled safety pins, and she'd never mince words. She was always right out there."
    Rhodes believes Westwood and her designs might be "far more important than we even thought" because of the "whole revolution" that "turned swinging London into punk London".
    As the person who dressed the Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood, who died on Thursday (December 29) at the age of 81, was synonymous with 1970s punk rock, a rebelliousness that remained the hallmark of an unapologetically political designer who became one of British fashion's biggest names.
    Climate change, pollution, and her support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were all fodder for protest T-shirts or banners carried by her models on the runway.
    Westwood used her public profile to champion issues including nuclear disarmament and to protest against anti-terrorism laws and government spending policies that hit the poor.
    She held a large "climate revolution" banner at the 2012 Paralympics closing ceremony in London, and frequently turned her models into catwalk eco-warriors.
    "She was always strongly on the ball," said Rhodes.
    (Production: Lisa Giles-Keddie)
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