MY DATE WITH THE GRANDE DAME OF PUNK
Having long been an Anglomaniac and dedicated follower of fashion decreed by Vivienne Westwood, when the coveted invitation to an evening with the undisputed Doyenne of British fashion, my excitement was only moderately tempered by the question of what to wear. Having many of her items in my wardrobe (I could almost start an exhibition of my own) was I to pay homage to the queen or show her I would not follow those who would be clad from head to toe in Westwood? In the end the only choice was to mix and match Westwood with up-and-coming cutting edge European designers, in the desperate hope that the leading light of all things punk and quirky would not overlook me in her search for individuality.
The Millennium Galleries in Sheffield has the honour of being the only UK venue to play host to the exhibition other than London, where the inaugural exhibition took place at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This retrospective records the long career of Vivienne Westwood. For the last four years the exhibition has been pulling in the crowds from the world of fashion, and indeed the public in general, on an international tour. The show is now back in its home country the UK. Here to attend the opening of the exhibition is Vivienne herself, as ever inspirational, ostentatious and unconventional. Vivienne is an exotic yet down to earth hybrid creature, impossible to categorise but falling somewhere between celebrity superstar and living legend.
Her personal life is as fascinating as her designs and creativity. Her outspokenness and no nonsense approach has it’s roots in her Northern upbringing where her father worked in the Wall’s sausage factory and her mother was a greengrocer’s assistant until they moved to Harrow to run a post office. Vivienne married a factory apprentice and trained to become a primary school teacher. Her suburban lifestyle underwent a radical change when she divorced her first husband then met, and later married, Malcolm Malaren, manager of the Sex Pistols who encouraged her to let the creative juices flow, to experiment and to cross boundaries.
Although Westwood designs are ever innovative, she has some traditional fashion beliefs. Vivienne always dresses to impress, or is that to shock, as fearlessly demonstrated when she met the Queen and let the worlds’ press see she was knickerless!
Paradoxically, considering Westwood designs are not the cheapest fashion buys, Vivienne believes consumerism has gone mad and states,
“I’d like people to stop all this buying and buying and buying. There’s this idea that somehow you’ve got to keep changing things, and as often as possible. Maybe if people just decided not to buy anything for a while, they’d get a chance to think about what they really liked. There’s something really awful about the way people dress now. Everyone wants to look neutral. Why do people think that if you don’t dress up, others will appreciate your beauty more – that style will somehow emanate from you? It’s rubbish. If you dress up it helps your personality to emerge.”
Vivienne Westwood holds an almost universal fascination but why is it? Could be that she is grounded despite her international fame? Maybe she can switch from being eccentric and ground breaking one minute to being maternal and caring the next. Vivienne is dazzling, absurd and captivating, and who cares whether she wears her knickers or not? Not her, that’s a fact!
This exhibition documents Westwood through the ages from her first ventures into punk, her beautiful hand painted romantic collections, her tributes to tartan and even the blue platform shoes that succeeded in doing what many others would love to do; planting Naomi Campbell firmly on her backside!! This is a must see for any fashionista, History of Fashion student or indeed anyone who is an Anglophile or an Anglomaniac. Get down there and pay homage to the undisputed Queen of British Fashion.
Words: Graham Gartside-Bernier Main Images: Vincent Bernier Archive Images: Vivienne Westwood
