Vivienne Westwood

British Fashion Designer and Businesswoman

Date of Birth	:	08 Apr, 1941
Date of Death	:	29 Dec, 2022
Place of Birth	:	Tintwistle, United Kingdom
Profession	:	Fashion Designer, Businesswoman
Nationality	:	British
Social Profiles	:	Instagram

Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood DBE RDI was an British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, Sky Arts ranked her the 4th most influential artist in Britain of the last 50 years.

Biography

She was a schoolteacher before she married Derek Westwood in 1962 (divorced 1965). A self-taught designer, in 1965 Westwood met and moved in with McLaren, future manager of the punk band the Sex Pistols. Together they pursued a career in fashion. Initially, they operated Let It Rock, a stall selling secondhand 1950s vintage clothing along with McLaren’s rock-and-roll record collection. Westwood produced clothing designs based on his provocative ideas. Their customized T-shirts, which were ripped and emblazoned with shocking antiestablishment slogans and graphics, and their bondage trousers—black pants featuring straps inspired by sadomasochistic costume—flew out of the London shop of which the couple became proprietors in 1971. Their boutique—variously named Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die; Sex; and finally Seditionaries—was a youth fashion mecca. Their erotically charged fashion image enraged Britain’s right-wing press, however. Soon after Westwood and McLaren staged Pirates, their first commercial ready-to-wear collection, in 1981, they ended their personal relationship. They remained professional partners for an additional five years, but Westwood soon established her identity as a leading independent designer.

Westwood’s “mini-crini” design—a thigh-grazing crinoline produced in both cotton and tweed that debuted as part of her spring-summer 1985 collection—marked a turning point. For the next two decades she created collections that took inspiration from classical sources, notably the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher, and Thomas Gainsborough, as well as historical British dress, including the 19th-century bustle, which Westwood incorporated under elaborate knitwear dresses and tartan miniskirts.

Independently, Westwood built her own eponymous mini fashion empire, operating numerous boutiques and producing two menswear and three women’s wear collections annually as well as bridal clothes, shoes, hosiery, eyewear, scarves, ties, knitwear, cosmetics, and perfumes. On April 1, 2004, a retrospective devoted to her creations opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion” was the largest exhibition the museum had ever dedicated to a British designer. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992 and advanced to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2006.

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, British order of knighthood instituted in 1917 by King George V to reward both civilian and military wartime service, although currently the honour is bestowed for meritorious service to the government in peace as well as for gallantry in wartime. In 1918 a separate military division of the order was created.

The five classes of both civil and military divisions, listed in descending order and conferred on men and women equally, are Knight and Dame Grand Cross (GBE), Knight and Dame Commander (KBE and DBE, respectively), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). Conferment of the two highest classes entails admission into knighthood, if the candidate is not already a knight or dame, and the right to the title of “Sir” or “Dame” as appropriate. (Knights and Dames Grand Cross, together with Knights of the Garter and of the Thistle, may be granted the use of supporters with their arms.) Appointments are usually made on the recommendation of the British Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

The officers of the order are Prelate (the Lord Bishop of London), King of Arms, Registrar, Secretary, Dean (Dean of St. Paul’s), and Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod. The chapel of the order is in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. The insignia bear likenesses of King George V and Queen Mary, together with the motto “For God and the Empire.”

Associated with this order is the British Empire Medal (BEM) instituted by George V. This award for meritorious service is given to both civilians and military personnel who are not eligible for admission into any of the five classes of the order.

Fashion Industry

Fashion industry, multibillion-dollar global enterprise devoted to the business of making and selling clothes. Some observers distinguish between the fashion industry (which makes “high fashion”) and the apparel industry (which makes ordinary clothes or “mass fashion”), but by the 1970s the boundaries between them had blurred. Fashion is best defined simply as the style or styles of clothing and accessories worn at any given time by groups of people. There may appear to be differences between the expensive designer fashions shown on the runways of Paris or New York and the mass-produced sportswear and street styles sold in malls and markets around the world. However, the fashion industry encompasses the design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, retailing, advertising, and promotion of all types of apparel (men’s, women’s, and children’s) from the most rarefied and expensive haute couture (literally, “high sewing”) and designer fashions to ordinary everyday clothing—from couture ball gowns to casual sweatpants. Sometimes the broader term “fashion industries” is used to refer to myriad industries and services that employ millions of people internationally.

The fashion industry is a product of the modern age. Prior to the mid-19th century, virtually all clothing was handmade for individuals, either as home production or on order from dressmakers and tailors. By the beginning of the 20th century—with the rise of new technologies such as the sewing machine, the rise of global capitalism and the development of the factory system of production, and the proliferation of retail outlets such as department stores—clothing had increasingly come to be mass-produced in standard sizes and sold at fixed prices. Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, today it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold in a third. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally. The fashion industry has long been one of the largest employers in the United States, and it remains so in the 21st century. However, employment declined considerably as production increasingly moved overseas, especially to China. Because data on the fashion industry typically are reported for national economies and expressed in terms of the industry’s many separate sectors, aggregate figures for world production of textiles and clothing are difficult to obtain. However, by any measure, the industry inarguably accounts for a significant share of world economic output.

The fashion industry consists of four levels: the production of raw materials, principally fibres and textiles but also leather and fur; the production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors, and others; retail sales; and various forms of advertising and promotion. These levels consist of many separate but interdependent sectors, all of which are devoted to the goal of satisfying consumer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit.