British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood died today, Dec. 29, 2022, in London at the age of 81.
The announcement was made on the designer’s official Instagram account on Thursday. “Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London,” the post said.
“Vivienne continued to do the things she loved, up until the last moment, designing, working on her art, writing her book, and changing the world for the better,” the post continued. “She led an amazing life. Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years has been immense and will continue into the future.”
“Vivienne considered herself a Taoist,” the post added. “She wrote, ‘Tao spiritual system. There was never more need for the Tao today. Tao gives you a feeling that you belong to the cosmos and gives purpose to your life; it gives you such a sense of identity and strength to know you’re living the life you can live and therefore ought to be living: make full use of your character and full use of your life on earth.’”
“The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” the post concluded.
Born April 8, 1941, Westwood will be most remembered for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream in the 1970s.
She got her start in the industry by designing and making Teddy Boy clothes for Malcolm McLaren and in 1971 they opened a small boutique called Let it Rock at number 430 Kings Road, Chelsea in London.
A year later, Westwood’s interests had turned to biker clothing, zips, and leather. The shop re-branded with a skull and crossbones and was renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die.
Vivienne and Malcolm began to design their own t-shirts with provocative printed slogans, which led to their prosecution under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act; they responded by re-branding the shop once again and producing even more t-shirts featuring hard-core images.
By 1974 the shop was renamed Sex, a shop “unlike anything else going on in England at the time” they used the slogan ‘rubberwear for the office.’