Photograph: PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
British designer and activist Vivienne Westwood died “peacefully and surrounded by her household” at her South London dwelling on Thursday, according to her firm. She was 81 years previous. “I’ll proceed with Vivienne in my coronary heart,” her husband and design companion, Andreas Kronthaler, mentioned in an announcement. “We have now been working till the tip, and she or he has given me loads of issues to get on with. Thanks, darling.”
An icon of punk fashion, Westwood was a faculty instructor earlier than she opened her first clothes retailer — Let It Rock, later renamed Intercourse — in London within the early Seventies. She ran the store together with her then-partner, Malcolm McLaren, who put collectively and managed the Intercourse Pistols; per the BBC, “They shot to fame carrying Westwood and McLaren’s designs.” Westwood had her first runway present in 1981 and would deliver straps, chains, and different bondage-inspired accents into the mainstream. For her contributions to trend, she was made a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 — elevated from her earlier title of officer of the order of the British Empire, which she acquired in 1992. On the primary event, she famously forewent underwear to fulfill the queen; on the second, she reportedly advised the Each day Mail, “Don’t ask. It’s the identical reply. I don’t put on them with clothes.”
Westwood was additionally recognized for her dedication to activism and in recent times turned notably outspoken on the local weather disaster, launching a Local weather Revolution marketing campaign by way of her basis. A Greenpeace ambassador, Westwood usually integrated her politics into her work. On December 29, the day of her loss of life, her basis posted a video of her 2021 “Letter to Earth” studying, filmed on the Globe Theater. “The phrase financial system means family administration,” she mentioned. “Earth is our dwelling, so, on a world scale, financial system means sustainability. We don’t have that. We have now no future; we’ve a monetary system primarily based on perpetual struggle, commerce struggle, and competitors. It’s the reason for local weather change.”
In line with her basis, Westwood “continued to do the issues she cherished, up till the final second, designing, engaged on her artwork, writing her e-book, and altering the world for the higher.”
