Jane Mulvagh - Vivienne Westwood - An Unfashionable Life

To Anthony

‘The child sees everything in a state of newness; he is always drunk. Nothing more resembles inspiration than the delight with which a child absorbs form and colour … but genius is nothing more or less than childhood recovered at will – a childhood now equipped with self-expression, with manhood’s capabilities and powers of analysis which enable it to order the mass of raw material which it has involuntarily accumulated.

Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life

On the Tree of Knowledge

I have carved 'amour'

The answer's not in looks, but books

If you want Glamour.

Vivienne Westwood, lyrics for ‘Choice’, 1987

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Preface to the 2004 edition

Preface to the original edition

PART ONE: THE AMATEUR DRESSMAKER

1 The Girl from the Snake Pass

2 Meeting Malcolm

3 Prankster Retailing

4 Cartwheeling to Casualty

PART TWO: THE GROUND-BREAKING DESIGNER

5 World’s End

6 Without Italy, I Wouldn’t Exist’

7 Rule Britannia!

PART THREE: THE CELEBRATED OUTSIDER

8 Wear Your Brain on Your Sleeve

9 The Wife Of Bath

10 Non-Stop Distractions

Conclusion

Appendix A

Appendix B

Reference Notes

Index

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Praise

Copyright

About the Publisher

When I concluded the first edition of this book in March 1998 I felt that it was ‘too soon to establish Vivienne Westwood’s place in fashion history’. I am happy to see that the Victoria and Albert Museum in London now believes that her work deserves a major retrospective. The curators have supplemented their archives with the purchase of three hundred early Westwood items from Michael and the late Gerlinde Costiff’s collection. They were two of Vivienne’s most avid early customers, and wore the clothes everywhere: to work, to the carnival in Brazil every year; ‘Even in places like the Sudan or Mali or Burkino Faso, people would point and say, “World’s End!” People always recognised Vivienne’s things,’ Michael Costiff recalls.

The Costiff collection has been acquired by the V&A for £100,000, £42,500 of which was raised by a grant from the National Art Collections Fund. On 1 April 2004 (a date that will amuse Vivienne) it will open a major retrospective of Vivienne’s life’s work. It is pleasing to see her work properly curated and exhibited, especially by a museum whose knowledgeable and brave Director of Textiles and Costume in the seventies and eighties, Valerie Mendes, had the foresight to invest the department’s meagre funds in the ‘Pirates’ collection. Mendes’ early commitment to Westwood, and this biography, have contributed to the latter’s recognition as an important, original and above all worldwide influence on modern fashion.

Coincidentally, as the cycle of fashion turns Vivienne’s oeuvre sits happily with the times once again. In a reaction to the last five years of ubiquitous sportswear, relieved only by skimpy slip dresses, her fashion vocabulary has resonance now. Whether it’s the playful layers of the ‘Buffalo’ look from her early years or the cut, fit, and dress-up idiom of her later collections, her clothes have found a new generation of fans. The Vivienne Westwood revival went mainstream three years ago when Kate Moss turned up at a party wearing original ‘Pirate’ boots. Leading auction houses and specialist stores, such as Rellick in West London, have enjoyed a busy trade in her vintage clothes and accessories. Indeed, one whole sale at Sotheby’s was devoted to the Vivienne Westwood collection of Lady Romilly McAlpine. Vivienne Westwood Ltd has launched the Anglomania label to exploit her back catalogue. The company also keeps in its archives over ten thousand pieces of clothing stretching over twenty-five years so that clients can have pieces from the past copied and made to measure. It is a popular service.

Celebrities from a new generation have been drawn to Vivienne’s clothes, leading yet more fans in their footsteps. Heather Graham, Christina Applegate, Jerry Hall and Elizabeth Jagger, Cameron Diaz, Drea de Matteo, Sarah Jessica Parker, R’n’B star Lil’Kim Joy Bryant, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connolly all favour her clothes, particularly for big events such as the Oscar ceremonies. The publicity-conscious Nigella Lawson wore a corseted black dress to show off her figure at the opening of the Saatchi Gallery in London in the spring of 2003 and while on a promotional tour of America, most notably on the Jay Leno Tonight talk show. Similarly Rosie Millard, the BBC’s Art Correspondent, dramatically boosted her profile when she wore a Vivienne dress with a plunging neckline for the Oscars three years ago. It’s a trick that worked, and she has repeated it since. Vivienne Westwood clothes produce results.

Vivienne’s influence continues to filter down from high fashion to the High Street too. Once again, and twenty years on, Top Shop are reinterpreting the frills and buckles of her ‘Buffalo’ look. And following in Brinton Carpets’ brave and groundbreaking wake, Swatch watches, Waterford/Wedgwood tableware and Wolford hosiery have recently marketed Vivienne Westwood designs exclusive to them. Each has been a lucrative and brand-promoting partnership.

Throughout the Far East and around the Pacific Rim Vivienne is picking up a new generation of clients. In April 2003 she was the only British designer to be invited to stage a major catwalk show at the Shanghai Fashion Festival, in anticipation of the opening of her first store in that city. She already has a shop in Hong Kong and fifteen retail outlets in Japan.

Though much of the menswear is designed by her husband Andreas, who also has a hand in her women’s wear, the idiosyncratic touch that indisputably reveals Vivienne’s inimitable mind can always be seen. Who else could have come up with fabric printed with grass- or red wine-stains, or created a rugby shirt for the Golden Jubilee which featured so many iconic images of Merrie England, from the red rose of England to the orb of Elizabeth I?

What is perhaps most unusual and admirable about Vivienne Westwood is that, well into her seventh decade, she continues to question and to create. Neither age nor success has blunted her busy mind or her combative nature. She remains emotionally engaged with the young, and shares their passion for some of the major political debates of the day. While most of us grow out of ‘It’s not fair,’ Vivienne continues to feel affronted by society’s inequities and hypocrisies and lies wherever she thinks she sees them.

Vivienne espouses issues and uses her celebrity to preach about them. Intellectually, she is a serial polygamist, flitting from one all-consuming passion to another. The seventies saw her committed to anarchy, the eighties to the politically and economically dispossessed and the voluptuous female form, and in the nineties we left her mourning the death of culture, and defending, for example, free entry to museums. The Labour government has reversed the Conservatives’ policy, and once again museums are free. While the chattering classes may chuckle, few would argue that Vivienne’s stands are not heartfelt and in some small way effective in raising awareness.