- August 30, 2025
- 11:00 am
She looked like a rebel in a schoolgirl uniform, but with every word — and every stitch — she cracked open the silence.
She said: fashion is a weapon.
And she wielded it as if it were poetry, as if it were a scream.
Born in 1941 in a small town in Derbyshire, she could have remained just an art teacher in an ordinary English school. But history had other plans. And so did Vivienne.
In the 1970s, together with Malcolm McLaren, she opened the shop in London that changed everything: it was called SEX.
Inside, they weren’t just selling clothes, but new identities. Collars, studs, ripped shirts, zippers in improbable places. It was punk. But not only that.
It was a revolution. In tulle.
Vivienne didn’t just want to shock. She wanted to break in and awaken.
For her, the body was a medium to tell stories, and to tell her own. Fabric, a sheet. Seams, declarations.
Her runway shows looked like theatrical acts. Her clothes seemed to ask: “hey, do you get it?”
Crinolines for queens and battle boots.
Tulle and tartan.
A graceful disobedience stitched to the heart.
It wasn’t just about appearances.
Behind every collection there was a stance, a denunciation, an idea.
Westwood spoke about climate change when no one else paid attention.
She brought politics, culture, and history to the runway.
Once she said: “Don’t buy clothes. Use your brain.”
Vivienne offered awareness disguised as provocation.
There was always a reason beneath every lace, every deconstructed corset, every skewed jacket.
And there was always her: free, independent, consistent.
Even in love, Vivienne chose the unexpected. In the 1980s, after her split with McLaren, she fell in love with Andreas Kronthaler, a former student of hers, 25 years her junior. They stayed together for life. They collaborated, sought each other out, challenged each other. She described him as the only man who could stay by her side without trying to change her.
Change… she was free. She seemed excessive, but she was exact.
She seemed random, but was crafted with the precision of someone who knows every detail is a choice of personality.
With her thought, Vivienne didn’t want women to be beautiful.
She wanted them to be dangerous. To impose themselves on the world’s mind, without fear. With boldness and elegance.
Vivienne Westwood chose to disturb, and disturb she did. With big boots, studs, and so, so much tulle.