Threads of inspiration: Fabric portraits of Female Artists - Vivienne Westwood

The Queen of punk, Vivienne Westwood, an absolute legend.

I am not sure where to start on writing something about this incredible lady.

Vivienne Westwood was born in a village in Derbyshire in 1941, the daughter of a factory worker and cotton weaver. She moved to London with her family as a teenager where she trained as a primary school teacher.

Vivienne was very influenced by Rock and Roll, the power of street culture and the importance of youth movements. Vivienne was a self taught designer and in 1965 she met Malcolm Mclaren, the future manager of the sex pistols and moved in with him. Together they pursued a career in fashion. Initially, they operated Let It Rock, a stall selling secondhand 1950s vintage clothing along with McLaren's rock-and-roll record collection.

The shop re-branded with a skull and crossbones and was renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. The next shop incarnation became ‘Sex’ with Jordan as shop manager and Chrissie Hynde working as shop assistant with various friends dropping in, Adam and the Ants, Boy George, Toyah Wilcox, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious to name a few.

The next and final incarnation of the shop was Worlds End. I remember going to the shop in the early 80’s, i was a new romantic and it was a very exciting time in London and the King’s road was one of the places you could pose along. I remember purchasing a pair of the falling down stockings, a pair of tribal printed shorts and a boob top.

I met Vivienne a couple of times in the mid eighties as I worked in the Fashion industry, firstly as a young fashion designer, then as a PR, a stylist and latterly in retail with my gorilla pop up, ‘Designer sales UK”.

People only saw Vivienne as this hugely successful Fashion Designer, but she struggled a lot in the early days, it was hard to earn enough money from Fashion unless you had a lot of money and a backer and with the separation from Malcolm Mclaren, which was not easy at the time and being a single mum bringing up two boys. But Vivienne was always tough and kept pushing through. Opportunities started to materialize with an Italian manufacturer and her brand started to really come together.

Vivienne was always taking her ideas into her collections and in the later years, her environmentalism was key to her work.

Vivienne was such a huge inspiration to me as a young fashion designer at college in the early 80’s and throughout the years, she was fierce and strong, a modern day boudica, and although she was not seem as an artist, I felt she epitomised this title as well as Queen of Fashion.