How did Vivienne Westwood die? Punk fashion legend, 81, who popularized new wave style was a schoolteacher
LONDON, UK: Fashion icon Vivienne Westwood has died at the age of 81, peacefully at home surrounded by her family. The Londoner's eponymous company in an official statement confirmed her death. "Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better," it wrote on a social media post. Westwood’s husband and creative partner Andreas Kronthaler said, “I will continue with Vivienne in my heart. We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank you, darling.”
The Derbyshire-born designer also proudly campaigned for concerns such as pollution and climate change, and she also didn’t hesitate while supporting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. In her biography, she once said, "The only reason I am in fashion is to destroy the word 'conformity'. Nothing is interesting to me unless it's got that element," according to SkyNews. Vivienne further added, "There was no punk before me and Malcolm," she said in her biography. "And the other thing you should know about punk too: it was a total blast."
READ MORE
MTV VMAs 2022 Red Carpet: From Taylor Swift to Blackpink, here are the best-dressed celebs
Westwood's career took off in the 1960s after her family left Glossop for North London, where she studied Jewellery-making and silversmithing, and eventually turned into a primary school teacher. She divorced her first husband in 1966 and met her future partner Malcolm McLaren, a punk godfather on Portobello Road, where she had started selling Jewellery. "I felt as if there were so many doors to open, and he had the key to all of them," she told Newsweek in 2004 on Malcolm. The ‘Queen of Extreme’ shared her second son with him, Joe, co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. According to Jon Savage's seminal ‘England's Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock,’ Vivienne said, "I have an in-built perversity. A kind of in-built clock which always reacts against anything orthodox," reports CNN.
Peter York, a style writer, reflected on her work in a 1990 documentary, "All the things that fuel her, and all the obsessions she builds her work around are typically British: The whole thing about class and sex, the particular obsession with the Queen. You couldn't develop those anywhere else." The Vivienne Foundation, a non-profit company, founded by Westwood, her sons, and her granddaughter will be officially launched in 2023. The organization will "honour, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne's life, design and activism,” as per her spokespeople.
