Vivienne Westwood obituary: remembering the ‘high priestess of punk fashion’

The designer, who died aged 81, redefined fashion with her bold designs

Vivienne Westwood winning the Swarovski Award for Positive Change in 2018
Vivienne Westwood winning the Swarovski Award for Positive Change in 2018
(Image credit: Mike Marsland/BFC/Getty Images)

A fashion designer, revolutionary and “emblem of English eccentricity”, Vivienne Westwood exploded onto the scene in the mid-1970s as “one of the chief progenitors of the punk aesthetic”, said The Times.

She was in her 30s when she and her art school drop-out boyfriend Malcolm McLaren started selling her bondage and fetish-inspired clothing from a shop at the far end of the King’s Road in London.

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