History
“Fashion is global, influence comes from everywhere in the world,” “You can wear anything in our part of the world. Anything goes.” - Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood became one of the leading designers of the 'Punk' era in the 1970’s. She is renowned for her boisterous and fearless designs, and is certainly not afraid to experiment. She uses unconventional, striking structures inspired by the punk era and combines these with more modern, more ‘pretty’ aspects of fashion. Equally as focused on business as she was design, I think this reflects her strong-minded approach to the industry and conveys the power of the working woman. Her choice of fabric and the shape of the garment usually contrast each other. She will use a structured, firm fabric - for example tartan, as a tight-fitted petite suit or a wonderful ball gown, and use a soft chiffon for a bold, manly shaped design. She combines unusual shapes with delicate details and feminine fabrics to maintain the boldness of punk fashion in a contemporary way.
“Plain fabrics show off the cut of clothes. I like to mix garments from different times and places: historical, ethnic, 20th century couture”
For me, her work makes me proud to be a woman. She designs clothes for women to feel confident in, with a lot of tailored designs which empower the wearer. Saying this, I do not like all of her designs. I find some of the colour-clashes too dominating, the structure of the clothes themselves is often lost behind crazy pattern combinations and repeat prints, which become almost confusing to look at.
Some of the looks she creates can be scary - particularly when featured on the catwalk, the models can be intimidating to the audience. Yet, her designs compliment the female form so well that the models still look undeniably attractive - almost flaunting what they have, or possibly exposing what men see. For the catwalk of her collection ‘World Wide Woman’ A/W 11 for her Gold label, the model’s faces were painted white and smudged with black around their eyes, mouths and noses, creating a skeletal, sinister look. I think this was to intimidate the audience, reversing the usual stereotype of women and to unify the models, grouping them all together as woman kind, a more powerful force, rather than as individuals.