reporter | Chen Qirui
editor | Lou Qianqin
Vivienne Westwood said goodbye on the penultimate day of 2022.
On December 30, Beijing time, Vivienne Westwood's eponymous brand released an obituary through its official social media account. The designer who had influenced the global fashion industry for more than half a century passed away at her 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 intelligent person; well-known photographer Mario Testino said that Vivienne Westwood is always willing to open the door of opportunity for others.
Vivienne Westwood was born in 1941. The daughter of a working-class family, she had converted to a modest career dream, training briefly as a primary school teacher.
In an interview with the media, Vivienne Westwood bluntly expressed the dullness of this kind of life. For her, fashion is an escape from the tedious life. In post-war Britain, supplies were scarce, and she had to buy fabrics to make her own clothes as a child. After she became an adult, she made all kinds of 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, it was like dry wood meeting a fire, which quickly ignited the spark of creativity and set off a punk movement that subverted England.
In terms of legend, Malcolm McLaren is no less than Vivienne Westwood. He is the manager of the punk originator band Sex Pistol. God Save the Queen, which has the same name as the British national anthem, is on the list because of its anti-bone spirit. When the second place is replaced by BBC with a blank box.
When Sex Pistol performed on stage, she wore Vivienne Westwood clothes. Deliberately torn strips of tattered cloth, a plethora of rivets and pins, bandage-like details and slogans that scare conservatives make her designs go viral.
And the store she opened at 430 King's Road in 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 is best known by the name "SEX".
not only rocked the British cultural scene, but it was also a commercial success. When recalling the past in her later years, she attributed it to the direct-to-consumer sales model. She has also mastered the limited marketing that is so popular nowadays, "If I have 1 or 2 pairs of the best designed pants, then I will never need to produce 10 other styles."
In fact, the reason why she was able to go through the cycles of fashion and trends not only relies on excellent creativity and the right time and place of the punk movement, but also rigorous business logic and exquisite operational thinking. The
punk movement gradually died down after entering the 1980s. Vivienne Westwood's name still lives on, and even if she chose to retire at the time, she was destined to be recorded in history. But she chose to transition. In the past, Vivienne Westwood's reputation came from the constantly rebranded boutique on King's Road, which will be carried by her name after that.
"I didn't care about the punk movement anymore. People no longer thought about how to fight against the traditional construction. You can't just simply rebel, you have to go faster."
In 1981, Vivienne Westwood held the fashion industry under her name The first fashion show since. Different from the punk music circle that I have been in before, as a brandIf the brand holds a fashion show, it means that it will enter the high fashion industry surrounded by conservatives.
But clearly, Vivienne Westwood is not willing to betray her roots. Facts have also proved that even in the field of high fashion, she is still a rebellious and innovative designer. Instead of focusing on the elegant advanced customization that rich wives are keen on, she looks to the third world and to draw inspiration from it.
And her business spirit and insight into the times are also reflected at this time. She found that after the frenzy and rebellion of the punk era, there was a wave of nostalgia in society. A French Revolution-inspired collection ensued, retro enough and rebellious enough for the historical text behind the garments.
"You have to know what to sell to be successful." Vivienne Westwood said in an interview. As the image of the punk godmother is increasingly consolidated, she also began to cite Gabrielle Chanel as a case, using herself as the center of the brand image and style for external marketing and publicity.
“One of the best things about working as a fashion designer is being able to wear all kinds of beautiful clothes,” she says, “I realized that people would be interested in me because of what I do, which is A very important thing.”
As for the classic Saturn logo, it was born by accident. It was originally one of many elements in the process of preparing the Harris Tweed series. It became the symbol of the Vivienne Westwood brand only because Carlo D'Amario, the brand 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. The boutiques at Beijing SKP and Shanghai Nanjing West Road CITIC Pacific recently opened, the latter being the brand's largest store in China. With the changes in business trends, this designer, who is 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 her age. She still participates in the operation of the brand, but also devotes more energy to environmental protection. The most widely spread news is that she drove the armored vehicle to the gate of 10 Downing Street, opposing the development of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing in the UK.
There is no doubt that Vivienne Westwood has been pushing the boundaries of fashion and culture throughout her life. She is the godmother of the British punk movement, a mentor who has had a huge impact on the careers of designers such as John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, a pro-environmental activist and a decorated dame. As a woman born in the 1940s,
has achieved great achievements and high social status that people could not imagine at that time. As a non-graduate student, she created clothing that changed the industry and influenced the style of the times, bringing many ideas that originally belonged to the niche circle to the perspective of mass culture.
In the more than 40 years since her transformation, Vivienne Westwood has left an extremely rich fashion legacy. From strappy pants, armor rings, platform shoes, corsets, to Scottish checks and Harris Tweed fabrics, she may not have patented the visual language of punk, but she has managed to turn attitude into wearable apparel.
This is a valuable and rare ability that requires abundant creativity and precise judgment to realize. 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 far more than that. Constantly breaking boundaries is actually what makes her a legend.
