Vivienne Westwood: "Why I Make Fashion: Destroying the Word Conformity!"

Vivienne Westwood was a soft-spoken rebel, a rebel who didn't need a megaphone to comment on social grievances and make her voice heard. In the 1970s, she put England on the map with her avant-garde fashion and - despite positioning herself "anti-establishment" - managed to become part of the establishment. At first, nothing in the life of Vivienne Swire sounded like a leather jacket and combat boots, as she was a primary school teacher to support her family. Only on the weekends did she have time to sell her jewelry on London's Portobello Road.

Things happened quickly with her first husband, Malcolm McLaren (founder of the "Sex Pistols"). She was known for her provocative prints on T-shirts, which she sold in McLaren's "Let it Rock" store, and became an icon of the punk movement - which ultimately earned her the title "Queen of Punk".

Tartans, deconstructed cuts, safety pins and a "planet" logo

The famous "SEX" store located on London's King's Road was the birthplace for the "Sex Pistols". Malcolm McLaren "casted" the other band members from clientele - from Glen Metlock to Sid Vicious. The partnership of fashion and music had once again created an important pop-cultural moment that was mutually beneficial.

But a decade later, punk wasn't what it was known for. Degenerate as an empty phrase commercialized beyond measure, Westwood designed the "Orb" to logotype their brand. The combination of an orb, a deeply British symbol as it is part of the crown jewels, was placed with the rings of Saturn.

Biedermeier symbolism in a Westwood headlock

So what Gen Z is now tying around their necks with a pearl necklace in dirndl jewelery look is an expression of the connection between different worlds and emblematic of the builder of their own. In 2008, her name catapulted itself back into global awareness with an equally staid piece of clothing: the wedding dress in the first "Sex and the City" film.

Yet Vivienne Westwood has been authentic at every stage of her life. While other designers struggle with every change in target group and style, Westwood walked through these challenges with a somnambulistic certainty.

In her last years she was mainly involved with environmental activism, while she increasingly left the design aegis of her brand to her Tyrolean husband, Andreas Kronthaler.

"I will continue with Vivienne in my heart. We worked together until the end and she gave me so many things. Thank you, my darling!" , said Andreas Kronthaler in the press release on her death.

Cover photo: Juergen Teller