V.W.
how can you not just love this crazy cool flaming red head! the creator of rock fashion!
she is now 71 years young and still rockin it! we love her!
couple of facts about this truely quirky dame!
Dame Vivienne Westwood's popularity constantly gains momentum. Her punk attitude is more alive in the Noughties than ever and her outspoken, Union Jack waving Englishness (with a few added safety pins and tea stains), is undiminished. It is fitting that the Establishment has recognised her work by making her a Dame.
Vivienne Westwood - fashion's older stateswoman that many wish to emulate, with her younger husband Andreas Kronthaler and energy for shaking things up whilst keeping her feet on the ground - seems to only recruit admirers. Cutting edge but classic, she is unflinchingly rooted in what matters, whether it is human rights or classical fiction. No trendy noise for her, just cleavage, mischief, and CAPITAL LETTER MESSAGES such as 2005's "I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don't arrest me" baby T-shirts.
• Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Glossop, Derbyshire, on April 8, 1941
• She began designing clothes in 1971 with the opening of her first shop, Let It Rock, at 430 King's Road. In 1974 it was renamed Sex
• In 1976, with her then lover and business partner, Malcolm McLaren, they dressed the Sex Pistols
• In 1981, Westwood showed her first seminal collection in London, entitled Pirate
• In 1990, Westwood launched a menswear collection in Florence. She was named British Designer of the Year that year, as well as in 1991
• In 1998 she won the Queen's Export Award
• In 2007 she was awarded the gong for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design at the British Fashion Awards - but she was late on to the stage to collect it since she'd popped out to go to the loo
Explaining the roots of her beliefs she said: "When I was a schoolgirl my history teacher, Mr. Scott, spoke with pride of civilisation and democracy. The hatred of arbitrary arrest by the lettres de cachet of the French monarchy caused the storming of the Bastille. We can only take democracy for granted if we insist on our liberty."
