Vivienne Westwood

Before she met Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood was a primary school teacher.

She sold jewelry on Portobello Road, in London, to earn extra cash.

Then she met the man who would manage the Sex Pistols.

And together, they lit the match that set British fashion on fire.

They opened a small shop at 430 King’s Road.

It kept changing names: Let It Rock. Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die. SEX. Seditionaries.

But the mission stayed the same: provoke, disrupt, explode the status quo.

Inside, they sold ripped t-shirts, safety pins, fetish gear, and bondage trousers.

Their designs gave visual form to punk before anyone had a word for it.

Their customers? The Sex Pistols. Siouxsie Sioux. Chrissie Hynde.

They made fashion political, and politics fashionable.

But Vivienne didn’t stop at punk.

She pivoted to pirates.

She studied 18th-century tailoring.

She built corsets out of tweed, silk, and taffeta.

She staged shows titled “Propaganda,” “Savages,” “Clint Eastwood,” and “Witches.”

Her models wore mohair jumpers that unraveled.

Dresses with political slogans.

Straightjackets made elegant.

She launched the Orb logo (combining the crown jewels with Saturn’s rings) and turned a symbol of empire into one of creative rebellion.

By 2015, she had 63 stores across Europe, Asia, and the U.S.

She earned millions, won three British Fashion Designer of the Year awards, and was knighted Dame Vivienne Westwood for services to fashion.

She used her platform to fight everything:
– Climate change (donated over £1.5M to Cool Earth)
– Overconsumption
– War and military spending
– Corporate corruption
– Tax avoidance

She dressed as Margaret Thatcher on the cover of Tatler.

She marched at Aldermaston against nuclear weapons.

She shaved her head to protest climate silence.

She made runway shows feel like manifestos.

And she literally suspended herself in a birdcage outside a courthouse to protest Julian Assange’s extradition.

In 2019, she created The Vivienne Foundation, built around four pillars: halt climate change, stop war, defend human rights, and protest capitalism.

Her goal? Systemic change through law, culture, and global coordination.

When she passed in 2022 at 81, tributes poured in from McCartney, Duran Duran, Boy George, and even the National Portrait Gallery.

But she had one final show left…

In June 2024, Christie’s auctioned off Vivienne’s personal wardrobe.

200 curated pieces across four decades.

The auction benefited Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, and The Vivienne Foundation.

She once said: “We cannot achieve systemic change without government cooperation. The only way we can save ourselves is with government help and our strategy must be put into law.”