Vivienne Westwood.

  The fashion designer.

Vivienne Westwood was born in Tintwistle, Derby,  England. She became well known in the 1970s when, with Malcolm McLaren the rock music entrepreneur, she opened a shop in London that became the focus of the punk rock movement. She gained international recognition in the early 1980s with her Pirate and New Romantics look. Vivienne Westwood has played a vital role in the emergence of Punk Rock in the 1970s and has gone on to become one of the most original and influential designers of our time.

Her designs combine a fearless unconformity with a sense of tradition. She is renowned for her gentle parody of Establishment styles.

Upon meeting Malcolm McLaren, it signified the end of Westwood's marriage to Derek. Westwood and McLaren lived in a council flat in Clapham and Westwood continued to teach until 1971, when Malcolm decided to open a boutique at 430 King's Road - Let It Rock. Westwood began to sell her outrageous and outlandish designs in the shop, which drew inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes. During this period, McLaren became manager of the punk band Sex Pistols and subsequently the two garnered attention, as the band often wore Westwood's designs and shopped at 430 King's Road. Westwood still owns this shop, which is now known as World's End, from which she sells her Anglomania label.

By 1972 the designer’s interests had turned to biker clothing, zips and leather. The shop was re-branded with a skull and crossbones and renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. Westwood and McLaren began to design t-shirts with provocative messages leading to their prosecution under the obscenity laws; their reaction was to re-brand the shop once again and produce even more hard core images. By 1974 the shop had been renamed Sex, a shop ‘unlike anything else going on in England at the time’ with the slogan ‘rubberwear for the office’.

 In 1980 the shop was refitted and renamed Worlds End, the name still in use today.

She is a very successful fashion designer,with her 'orb' logo thats know world wide. Her designs are now broadened to: purses, bags, belts, eye wear, shoes, ring, ear rings, bracelets, necklaces cuff links and broches. 

I like her jewelery the most because of the random and out of the ordinary style. Westwood, has a great love for unusual objects and she is fascinated about how they work.  

www.viviennewestwood.co.uk