The Vivienne Westwood

* Vivienne Westwood British fashion designer and business woman largely responsible for bringing modern punk into the main stream. * In 1971, she opened a shop with her boy friend Malcolm McLaren called â€Å"let it rock† at 430 Kings Road. They sold brothel creeper shoes and draped jacket. Her inspiration was the 50’s music and clothing. * In 1972, the shop was rebranded with skull and crossbones and renamed as â€Å"Too fast to live, too young to die†. The designer’s interests had turned to biker clothing, zips and leather. Westwood and McLaren began to design t-shirts with provocative messages. Westwood was deeply inspired by the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s, saying â€Å"I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way. â€Å"The punk style† included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, and razor blades, bicycle chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewelry, as well as outrageous make-up and hair. * By 1974, the shop was renamed â€Å"sex†. It was intimidating and attracted extraordinary clientele. The shop’s slogan was- rubber wear for the office. In 1980, shop got its final name i. e. â€Å"The world’s end† which is still open and owned by Vivienne Westwood. Vivienne Westwood’s designs got popular when McLaren became the manager of a British rock band called the sex pistols. They wore clothes which were designed by Westwood. The designs were inspired from prostitutes and bikers. * Pirates collection was the first ever catwalk at Olympia in spring 1981. It was a unisex collection. This line was inspired from Native Americans and ethnic cuts. The pants were loose from the hip area. The garments were asymmetrical. The clothes evoked the golden age of piracy, an age of highwaymen. The collection immediately entered the mainstream. The buffalo girls in 1982 marked the the opening of their second shop named â€Å"Nostalgia of mud†. This collection was all about huge tattered skirts and sheep skin jackets in muddy colours. The emphasis was put on the over printed natural fabrics. The whole collection had a raw feel to it. The inspiration was the dancing Peruvian women. In this collection bra was worn as an outer garment. Her relationship with Malcolm McLaren ended right after this. * Westwood found magic in the work of the New York graffiti artist Keith Haring. This was printed in fluorescent colours on backgrounds that resembled firework paper. In 1983, She created a collection named witches which had Haring’s artwork on it. It featured t-shirts, oversized jackets and coats, double-breasted jackets. * Client Eastwood, It included garments smothered in Italian company logos and Day-Glo patches inspired by Tokyo's neon signs. These were use to fill up the empty spaces on the garment which was a trend in those days. * Harris Tweed was a Tailored and childish look collection by Westwood in 1987. The Inspirations were royalty, British fabrics, especially wool and black velvet which had provided all the uniforms of the British Empire. This was followed by Voyage to Cythera; this collection was named after a Watteau painting. Inspirations were Watteau, Comedian del Arte and Ballets Ruses . * The Inspirations for the portrait collection were the various Oil paintings. She tired to portray the painting textures and wealth into her garments. * Cut and Slash in 1991, In this collection she Slashed fabric like satin, cotton, denim. She was inspired from the 16th century mania for cutting and pricking fabric which lasted for 200 years and the battles. The collection consisted of gowns and knit wear jackets. * at the time of Gainsborough the French became mad about English tailoring and the spontaneity of country charm. Vivienne believes that fashion is a combination and exchange of ideas between France and England, â€Å"On the English side we have tailoring and an easy charm, on the French side that solidity of design and proportion that comes from never being satisfied because something can always become more refined. † Hence she created a collection named Anglomania in 1993. Vive la Cocotte was a brand new silhouette collection, the ultimate hourglass figure with padded bust and bustle now constructed out of a light weight metal cage. It was worn with Extremely high platforms. * After this, she kept historicism to one side, Westwood returned to a more asexual cut, exploring the natural dynamic of the fabric by treating it like a living mass . he came out with various labels like gold label, red label, wild beauty etc. choosing different titles explains her forte in the industry. * The glod label was inspired from fairy tales. Hence the collection was known was prince charming. * At Naomi Campbell’s request we designed a special tee-shirt – called â€Å"Vital Statistics† – for her charity Fashion for Relief. Right now this charity is working with the White Ribbon Alliance which supports the 240,000 pregnant women and mothers of new-born babies with 0 support in Haiti. This tee-shirt is available to buy at the show venue or through our shops and on the website * The red label is about being romantic and artistic. The woman is an art lover. Art gives meaning to her life and courage to face the world. * She also designed a wedding gown for Jessica parker in the movie sex and the city. Which became a hit. She was also one of the script writers too. * Her work is very similar to a indain based designer called manish arora, * They both are loud, vibrant, loves to think out of the box etc.