Dame Vivienne Westwood: Fashion designer dies aged 81

Dame Vivienne Westwood, the pioneering British fashion designer who played a key role in the punk movement, has died in London aged 81.

Westwood died "peacefully, surrounded by family" in Clapham, south London, on Thursday, her representatives said in a statement. She had continued to do the things she loved, including designing, working on her book and making art "until the last moment", they added.

Her husband and creative partner, Andreas Kronthaler, said, "I will continue with Vivienne in my heart. We worked through to the end and she gave me a lot to do. Thank you dear."

Born in Tintwistle near the town of Glossop, Derbyshire, in 1941, Westwood moved with her family to London in 1957, where she attended art school. A self-taught designer with no formal training in fashion, Westwood learned to make clothes as a teenager by following patterns and taking apart second-hand clothes she found in markets to figure out the fit. and construction.

She met band manager Malcolm McLaren in the 1960s while working as a schoolteacher after splitting from her first husband, Derek Westwood The couple opened a small shop on Kings Road in Chelsea in 1971 which became the haunt of many bands they e equipped, including the Sex Pistols, which were managed by McLaren.

<>His provocative and sometimes controversial designs came to define the punk aesthetic, and Westwood would go on to become one of Britain's most famous fashion designers, blending historical references with classic tailoring and flourishes romantic with sharper and sometimes overtly political messages.

The Westwood and McLaren boutique has changed its name and focus on several occasions, including as Sex, - the couple were fined in 1975 for "indecent exposure" there - as well as Worlds End and Seditionaries.

Westwood's first show in 1981 for her Pirates collection was a milestone in the punk rebel becoming one of the fashion world's most famous stars. But she still found ways to shock: her 1987 Statue of Liberty corset is considered the start of the "underwear as outerwear" trend. -business book, the designer never lost her activist streak. In 1989, she posed for the cover of Tatler magazine dressed as Margaret Thatcher, to a caption that read, "This woman was once a p...