Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life
The acclaimed biography of one of England’s great eccentrics and leading fashion designers.• For three decades, Vivienne Westwood has been Britain’s most consistently original, outrageous, eccentric and controversial designer. In that time she has evolved from an iconoclastic outsider to an internationally revered figure, with two British Designer of the Year awards, an OBE, her own successful fashion label and an unrivalled reputation for leading where other designers follow.• Her lifestyle could scarcely be in greater contrast to the opulence which surrounds other leading designers: until recently she lived in a modest council flat in South London, and she still travels around the capital by bicycle, dressed in her own flamboyant creations, with a plastic bag protecting her hair from the elements. How did an awkward girl from a conventional and provincial background become one of world fashion’s most influential and respected designers? How has she managed to remain true to her own idiosyncratic vision, refusing to conform to the fashion industry’s, and society’s, expectations?• Speaking to Westwood herself, her friends, lovers, colleagues, rivals, admirers and detractors, Jane Mulvagh has created a portrait as rich, distinctive and constantly surprising as her subject’s character and work.
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VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
AN UNFASHIONABLE LIFE
JANE MULVAGH
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
CONTENTS
Preface to the original edition
PART ONE: THE AMATEUR DRESSMAKER
1 The Girl from the Snake Pass
PART TWO: THE GROUND-BREAKING DESIGNER
6 Without Italy, I Wouldn’t Exist’
PART THREE: THE CELEBRATED OUTSIDER
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.
