'Very British, but wild' - fashion world reacts to death of designer Vivienne Westwood

Record ID: 1705023

  • Title: 'Very British, but wild' - fashion world reacts to death of designer Vivienne Westwood
  • Date: 30th December 2022
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - JULY 21, 2020) (REUTERS) WESTWOOD, IN A GIANT BIRD CAGE OUTSIDE THE OLD BAILEY, BRITAIN'S CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, IN SUPPORT OF WIKILEAKS' FOUNDER, JULIAN ASSANGE
  • Embargoed: 13th January 2023 12:16
  • Keywords: Suzy Peta Menkes Vivienne Westwood Zak Maoui fashion designer
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Celebrities,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA007954030122022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Late British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood was "very English" with a "wild side" and made it her mission to raise awareness of climate change and the importance of sustainability, fashion industry experts said on Friday (December 30).
    "She was recognised as somebody who presented Great Britain, very English in many ways and yet speaking the language that could be understood by young people, eager people, all over the world," said British journalist and fashion critic Suzy Peta Menkes, who was the former fashion editor for the International Herald Tribune and first met Westwood in London's Kings Road.
    "I first saw her when she was sitting in the Kings Road, which was the epicentre of the fashion (industry) in the 1970s and 80s, and she sat there looking so charming and then you saw the crazy things she was doing and it was very British in that way," she recalls. "On one side it looked as though she wanted to dress like the Queen of England and on the other side, she wanted to have her wild side."
    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.
    "She took punk to the mainstream but she did it at a time when fashion was sort of stuffy and not really doing anything like that. So it came as a shock not only to the industry, but those outside it. She did it with a silliness and a playfulness," said GQ magazine style editor Zak Maoui.
    However, although she "had such a sense of humour" that was represented through her fashion, Westwood also raised awareness of global issues.
    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.
    "I'm fascinated by the way that when most designers are finishing their careers, she took on a new career, which was to make everybody aware of the situation in the world, in the fashion world, and that it's really something to say because it meant that she was with young people, the same attitudes, even when she's approaching 80 years old," said Peta Menkes.
    A recycling mentality pervaded Westwood's work, and she repeatedly told fashionistas to "choose well" and "buy less". From the late 1960s, she lived in a small flat in south London for some 30 years and cycled to work.
    In a "Letter to the Environment" in 2021, as part of a campaign urging action against climate change in the run-up to the U.N. COP26 summit, Westwood read out:
    "The word economy means 'household management'. Earth is our home, so on a global scale economy means sustainability. We don't have that. We have no future. Tomorrow is too late."
    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.
    "Everything she did came with more of a mission statement. And it wasn't just about designing clothes for her, which I think was something that we haven't really seen in the eighties, nineties with other designers. And she's really put that on the map for future generations of designers," said Maoui.
    (Production: Lisa Giles-Keddie)
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