Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood met Malcolm McLaren, later known for being the manager for punk band The Sex Pistols. Malcolm decided to open a shop, Let It Rock (also known as Sex, Too Fast To Live Too Young Too Die, Seditionaries) where Westwood began to sell her outrageous designs. During this period, Westwood, McLaren, and artist Jamie Reid were influenced by the Situationists. She still owns the shop, which is at 430 King’s Road, and sells her Anglomania label from there. The shop is now known as World’s End.

The punk style began to gain notoriety when the Sex Pistols wore clothes from Westwood and McLaren’s shop at their first gig. The “punk style” included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins (taking inspiration from Richard Hell, a personality in the early New York punk rock scene), razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars that were used as jewelery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair.

The inclusion of more traditional elements of British design, such as tartan fabric, amongst the more unusual elements of her style only served to make the overall effect of her designs more shocking.

Together, Westwood and McLaren revolutionized fashion, and the impact is still felt today.