Vivienne Westwood Biography

Vita

• 1961

  After attending Harrow Art School, Westwood trained as a teacher and taught at an elementary school in north London.

• 1967

  After a failed marriage with toolmaker Derek Westwood (1962-1965), Westwood met Malcolm Edwards (Malcolm McLaren), with whom she had her second son. As a mother, she devotes more time to sewing her own clothes.

• 1971

  Together with Malcolm, she founded her first boutique "Let it rock" at 430 Kings Road in London.

• 1973

  A new product range brings a new name for the store: "Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die".

• 1974

  The store has been operating under the name "Sex", and the product range has changed to erotic lingerie and SM articles. During this time, the first touchpoints with Sid Vicious and the later Sex Pistols can be identified, for whose outfits Westwood is largely responsible.

• 1979

  After another renaming ("Seditionaries — Clothes for Heroes"), Westwood's boutique receives its name "World's End", which still holds true today.

• 1981

  Westwood presents her first own fashion collection "Pirates", followed in 1982 by "Savage", a collection inspired by Wild West motifs. Both are part of the runway fashion shows as part of the London Designers Collection at the Olympia Exhibition Hall.

• 1982

  Westwood also introduces her collections in Paris, the first British fashion designer to do so since Mary Quandt, the inventor of the miniskirt.

  

• 1982–1983

  Westwood and McLaren operate a second store at St. Christopher's Place in London.

• 1983

  The separation from McLaren leads the Westwood brand to a financial crisis, from which a licensing agreement with Giorgio Armani emerges in 1984 (dissolved in 1987).

• 1985

  Her Petrushka-inspired collection Mini Crini, still famous today, is created.

  

• 1987

  Westwood creates another classic with the Harris Tweed collection, marking a successful turning point in her career as a designer.

• 1990

  The first complete men's collection "Cut and Slash" followed, which became a permanent part of the brand portfolio in 1996.

• 1992

  Westwood was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

  

• 1989–2005

  Westwood holds teaching positions at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Berlin University of the Arts. In Vienna, she also met Andreas Kronthaler, a student, whom she married in 1992. He continues to work for her company as a designer until now.

• 1996

  Westwood designs theater costumes for the first time for the performance of the Threepenny Opera at the Burgtheater in Vienna.

• 1999

  The designer opens a boutique in New York.

• 2004

  The retrospective "Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion" is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It is the largest exhibition the museum has ever dedicated to a designer.

• 2006

  Westwood received the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) award.

• 2014

  Westwood designs uniforms for the British airline Virgin Atlantic and for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year's Concert.

• 2019

  Launch of various collaborations with Asics, Vans and Buffalo, as well as Eastpak.

  

• After the last participation in London Fashion Week 2019, Westwood has decided to present her fashion only digitally for environmental reasons.

• 2021

  The designer will receive the Leonardo da Vinci Award in Florence for her life's work.