30 fashion designers you should know... #15

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

Born in 1941, Westwood (originally "Vivien Isabel Swire") moved to Harrow, London, at the age of seventeen. First studying at the Harrow School of Art, Westwood decided reskilling and became a, as it is said, very committed primary school teacher. But her creativity and radical sympathies encouraged her taking another step forward, thus Westwood opened her first boutique 1970 in London. Several name changes and different themes later, Westwood's boutique Seditionaries became the nucleus of punk. Her first collections were mainly based on ready-to-wear fashion- pimped with provocative slogans, patterns, stripes and sometimes tored to pieces. All decorated with steel chains, safety pins, rivets and zippers. Westwood was now teaching her customers, adopting a look which expressed one's frustration with unemployment and lack of educational possibilities. Next step would be not to only seek inspiration on England's streets, but in the museum. She began taking historical costumes to pieces in order to understand how they were made. Complex creations resulted and Westwood presented them at Paris Fashion Week in the mid-eighties. Today, the British designer is known as the "mother of punk". Characteristic of her creations are items from the history of fashion, well combined with a provocative accent or topical themes. Her trademarks became high platform heels, tweed fabrics and old-fashioned, but at the same time very feminine cuts.

Vivienne Westwood