reporter | Chen Qirui
editor | Lou Qinqin
Vivienne Westwood said goodbye on the penultimate day of 2022.
On December 30, Beijing time, the eponymous brand of Vivienne Westwood released an obituary through its official social media account. The designer, who has influenced the global fashion industry for more than half a century, passed away at his home in Clapham, South London, at the age of 81. The specific reason was not stated.
The news quickly caused shock in the fashion industry. Model Bella Hadid said that Vivienne Westwood is the coolest, most creative and most intelligent person; well-known photographer Mario Testino said that Vivienne Westwood is always willing to open the door to opportunities for others.
Vivienne Westwood was born in 1941. The daughter of a working-class family, she once converted to a modest career dream and briefly served as a primary school teacher after training.
In an interview with the media, Vivienne Westwood bluntly expressed the dullness of this life. For her, fashion is an escape from a boring life. Materials were scarce in post-war Britain, so she had to buy fabrics to make her own clothes when she was a child. As an adult, she made various jewelry from time to time and sold them in the market.
The key node appeared in the 1970s, when Vivienne Westwood met Malcolm McLaren who later completely changed the trajectory of her life. After the two fell in love, they were like sticks touching fire, quickly igniting the spark of creativity and setting off the punk movement that subverted England.
In terms of legend, Malcolm McLaren is no less than Vivienne Westwood. He is the manager of Sex Pistol, the originator of punk . God Save the Queen, a song with the same name as the British national anthem, was replaced by BBC with a blank space when it ranked second on the list due to its anti-bone spirit.
When Sex Pistol performed on stage, she was wearing clothes designed by Vivienne Westwood. Deliberately torn strips of cloth, a large number of rivets and pins, bandage-like details and slogans that scare conservatives made her designs quickly become popular.
And the store she opened at 430 King's Road, London, became the center of British punk culture and youth fashion at that time. The store changes its name every time a new collection is released, from "Let It Rock" to "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die" to "Seditionaries." But it's best known as "SEX."
This store not only shook up the British cultural circle, but also became a commercial success. Looking back on the past in her later years, she attributed it to the direct-to-consumer sales model. She has already mastered the limited-edition marketing that is so popular today. "If I have 1 or 2 pairs of the best-designed pants, I will never need to produce 10 other pairs."
In fact, the reason why she can travel through the cycles of fashion and trends relies not only on excellent creativity and the right time and place of the punk movement, but also on rigorous business logic and exquisite operational ideas.
The punk movement gradually died out after entering the 1980s. Vivienne Westwood's name still exists, and even if she chooses to retire at that time, she is destined to be recorded in history. But she chose to transform. In the past, Vivienne Westwood's reputation came from the fashion store on King's Road that was constantly changing its name. After that, it will be carried by her name.
"I no longer cared about the punk movement. People no longer thought about how to fight against traditional architecture. You can't just be rebellious, you have to go faster."
In 1981, Vivienne Westwood held her first fashion show in her name since entering the fashion industry. Different from the previous punk music circle, when a brand holds a fashion show, it means that it will enter the high-end fashion industry surrounded by conservative people.
But apparently, Vivienne Westwood doesn't want to betray her roots. Facts have also proved that even in the field of high fashion, she is still the rebellious and innovative designer. She did not focus on the elegant haute couture that rich ladies are keen on, but instead focused on the third world of and to draw inspiration from it.
And her business spirit and insight into the times were also reflected at this time. She discovered that after experiencing the enthusiasm and rebellion of the punk era, a wave of nostalgia began to rise in society.A collection inspired by the French Revolution was born. It was retro enough and the historical text behind the clothes was rebellious enough.
"You have to know what to sell to be successful." Vivienne Westwood said in an interview. As the image of the punk godmother became increasingly consolidated, she also began to cite Gabrielle Chanel as an example, using herself as the center of the brand image and style for external marketing and publicity.
"As a fashion designer, one of the best things about my job is being able to wear all kinds of beautiful clothes." She said, "I realized that people will be interested in me because of what I do, which is a very important thing."
As for the classic Saturn symbol, it was born completely by accident. It was originally one of many elements in the process of preparing the Harris Tweed series. It became the logo of the Vivienne Westwood brand only because Carlo D’Amario, the brand’s CEO at the time, believed that this pattern was both traditional and futuristic.
Today, Vivienne Westwood has established a fashion empire covering a global sales network. Boutique stores located at Beijing SKP and Shanghai Nanjing West Road CITIC Pacific have recently opened. The latter is the brand's largest store in China. As business trends change, this designer who remains open to all new things has also actively participated in various joint cooperation series.
Later in life, Vivienne Westwood handed over the creative power of the brand to her husband Andreas Kronthaler at the age of 75 due to age. She is still involved in the operation of the brand, but she also devotes more energy to environmental protection. The most widely circulated news was that she drove an armored vehicle to the door of No. 10 Downing Street to oppose the British development of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing.
There is no doubt that Vivienne Westwood has been constantly challenging the boundaries of fashion and culture throughout her life. She is the godmother of the British punk movement, a leader who had a huge influence on the careers of designers such as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. She is an activist who supports environmentalism and is also a decorated Baroness.
As a woman born in the 1940s, she achieved great achievements and a high social status that people could not imagine at the time. As a non-professional, she created clothing that changed the industry and influenced the style of the times, bringing many ideas that originally belonged to niche circles to the perspective of popular culture.
In the more than 40 years since her transformation, Vivienne Westwood has left an extremely rich fashion legacy. From lace-up pants, armor rings, platform shoes, corsets, to Scottish plaid and Harris Tweed materials, she may not have the patent of punk visual language, but she has successfully transformed her attitude into wearable clothing.
This is a valuable and rare ability that requires abundant creativity and precise judgment to achieve. Rebellion and punk may be the most important labels in Vivienne Westwood's life, but she also proved to the world that she can do much more than that. Continuously breaking all kinds of boundaries is actually what makes her a legend.
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