A look back at Vivienne Westwood’s personal style:
These were conscious exposures; the designer’s most infamous reveal, in contrast, was presumably unplanned and took place in 1992 when Westwood went to Buckingham Palace to receive her OBE. She was dressed in a New Look-style suit, and when she took a turn for the cameras and the full skirt went flying, it became evident that she’d left her knickers at home.
Westwood’s style was not solely defined by exhibitionism, but she did wear her political agenda on her sleeve. An ardent activist, the designer had taken the slogan idea and gone wild with it: printing, knitting, and pinning manifestos on garments and accessories that function like pliable and portable sandwich boards.
An avid scholar of fashion history, with a particular fondness for the 18th century, Westwood attended galas in full-skirted gowns that could have walked out of the paintings of François Boucher or Franz Xaver Winterhalter. She might wrap such a dress with a shawl of her proprietary tartan; for the “Anglomania” exhibition at the Costume Institute in 2006 she was draped in the Union Jack and sported a dress of her own creation.
Ultimately, Westwood became a sort of avatar of herself. It’s an idea that she played with by appearing in her own press materials. With Westwood, what you saw was what you got – pure fashion and signature style.
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