Vivienne Westwood

"The only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word 'conformity.' Nothing's interesting to me unless it's got that element." ~ Vivienne Westwood

If I was living in London, I would so be stalking this woman right now.
Vivienne Westwood is a fashion god, and I‘m always surprised that she's not a household name. Especially for music fans. She was completely instrumental in the beginning of the punk scene. It’s such a good representation of the relationship between fashion and music, since she dressed both the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls.

Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK

I’m really not digging Marilyn Manson as the current poster child for Viv, but, whatevs, I don’t do her marketing. It must have something to do with how he supposedly doesn’t “conform” but, I don’t know, he seems kind of manufactured to me. That’s a whole other topic. He doesn’t really scare me like I think he’s supposed to. But maybe that’s because he’s from my home town, and I know people who went to his private Christian school, before he got kicked out. (Side note: Macy Gray is also from my home town, and she was so drunk that she got booed off the stage when she was asked to sing the national anthem at some event a few years ago. She kept messing up the lyrics. ).

Viv had a shop with her partner, Malcolm McLaren, and they renamed it every few seasons. Let It Rock was the title of their first shop in 1970, in the Chelsea area of London. Their merchandise consisted of 1950’s themed fashion and music, that whole “teddy boy“ drainpipe trouser look. In 1972, the shop was renamed Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die, a tribute to James Dean and his premature death. It went from a '50’s innocence (Vivienne was turned off by the often racist and sexist nature of the teddy boys) to provocative leather clothing adorned with zippers and chains. In the fall of ‘73, some of the British shops were invited to sell merchandise at the National Boutique Show in New York. Vivienne went, and was interviewed by Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. She also ran into cross-dressing glam rock group the New York Dolls’ guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, who she then started designing for. In 1974, Westwood started selling ripped tee shirts and rubber S&M clothing, with their shop renamed, appropriately, Sex. Viv and Malcolm were actually fined in 1975 for "exposing to public view an indecent exhibition." In 1976, punk is born with the Sex Pistols, who played their first show in Westwood and McLaren’s clothing (the shop at that point was named Seditionaries). Malcolm was a marketing genius, and it’s speculated that he actually put together the Pistols as an advertising tool for the Sex shop (Johnny Rotten denies this). Westwood was finally coming into her own, and the Pistols’ clothing was all rips, zippers, chains, bondage, slogans and porn. Viv's shop was renamed “World’s End” in 1981 (after she had her first runway show, a pirate-themed collection), and it still is today.

The best part about Viv’s story is that she started out so subversively, and it now touted as one of the greatest living designers, with exhibitions in museums all over the UK. And the fact that she was chosen over and over again by (arguably) the best film costume designer working today, Pat Field on Sex and the City, shows what a phenomenal impact she has had, and continues to have, on fashion. That feather bum skirt Carrie is wearing just kills me.