Editing Vivienne Westwood (section)

===Punk era===
Westwood was one of the architects of the [[punk fashion]] phenomenon of the 1970s, saying "I was messianic about punk, seeing if one could put a spoke in the system in some way".<ref name="disgracefully yours"/> Westwood's emergence as a designer who made garments that reflected the economic, social, and political contexts of 1970s Britain coincided with a disillusioned youth, who developed a unique style of dress and musical expression which was instantly identifiable through its aesthetic and sound.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Authors: Shannon |title=Vivienne Westwood (born 1941) and the Postmodern Legacy of Punk Style {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vivw/hd_vivw.htm |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |date=October 2004 |language=en}}</ref>

Westwood's boutique, originally managed with McLaren, was a meeting place for early members of the London punk scene. The boutique regularly changed names and interior design through the 1970s to fit with collections and design inspirations. It remains in its original location at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea, London (under the name Worlds End since 1980, following a short period of closure in the 1980s) to this day.

McLaren and Westwood were keen entrepreneurs, and their designs sold in their boutique – named ''Let It Rock'', ''Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die'', ''[[Sex (boutique)|Sex]],'' and subsequently [[Seditionaries (boutique)|''Seditionares'']] – helped to define and market the punk look at the exact moment that it exploded in popularity on the streets of London.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Authors: Shannon |title=Vivienne Westwood (born 1941) and the Postmodern Legacy of Punk Style {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vivw/hd_vivw.html |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |date=October 2004 |language=en}}</ref> Westwood's designs during the Punk Era and thereafter were informed by historicism; the V&A describing Westwood as "a meticulous researcher".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vivienne Westwood: a taste for the past · V&A |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/vivienne-westwood-a-taste-for-the-past |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum |language=en}}</ref> Westwood began challenging gender norms and promoting experimentation in her designs, which at the outset were created in collaboration with McLaren.

Initially, Westwood created garments referencing the dress of the 1950s Teddy Boys, which were worn by McLaren. Upon opening ''Let It Rock'' in 1971, the first incarnation of Westwood and McLaren's boutique, early creations for the shop incorporated such influences reminiscent of the youth subculture fashions of the 1950s'''.'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Story So Far |url=https://blog.viviennewestwood.com/the-story-so-far/ |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=Vivienne Westwood |language=en-US}}</ref> Inspired by the rebellious nature of the 1950s youth, Let It Rock referenced the clothing, music, and décor of the immediate postwar era.

In 1972, Let It Rock was refashioned into ''Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die'', in homage to the death of James Dean. Though design references for garments retailed under Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die focussed on the rocker aesthetic of the 1960s,<ref name="auto"/> the boutique still sold Teddy Boy inspired garments under the Let It Rock label.<ref>{{Cite web |last=AnOther |date=2022-12-30 |title=The Many Lives of Vivienne Westwood's Worlds End Shop |url=https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/8672/clothes-for-heroes-story-of-vivienne-westwoods-worlds-end-shop-sex-kings-road |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=AnOther |language=en}}</ref> The new politically leaning design inspirations for Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die were conveyed through Westwood's sleeveless T-shirts, bearing various statements such as ‘PERV’ and ‘ROCK’, created using a combination of safety pins, chicken bones, and glitter glue.

Two years later, in 1974, Westwood and McLaren's boutique was re-modelled, and reopened as [[Sex (boutique)|''Sex'']]. Pieces sold in Sex were intentionally abrasive and challenging, with designs grounded in fetish and sado-masochism, seeking to provoke a comfortable middle class and inspire young punks into political action by challenging the status quo.<ref name="Scottie Andrew">{{Cite web |author=Scottie Andrew |title=How Vivienne Westwood dressed the Sex Pistols and shaped punk |url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/vivienne-westwood-punk-fashion-sex-pistols-cec/index.html |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=CNN |date=30 December 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Garments retailed at Sex included skirts and dresses made from rubber as well as t-shirts with pornographic material printed on them.<ref name="vam.ac.uk">{{Cite web |title=Vivienne Westwood: punk, new romantic and beyond · V&A |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/vivienne-westwood-punk-new-romantic-and-beyond |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Westwood [née Swire], Vivienne |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/display/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7002081175 |access-date=2024-03-17 |website=Grove Art Online |date=2009 |language=en |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t2081175 |last1=Deihl |first1=Nancy |isbn=978-1-884446-05-4 }}</ref> The clothes often had large intentional rips in them and sizeable zippers incorporated into the garments.

Sex became a meeting point at the centre of the punk scene, and transformed into [[Seditionaries (boutique)|''Seditionaries'']] in 1976. Clothing retailed at ''Seditionaries (Seditionaries: Clothes for Heroes)'' retained the familiar references of Sex, including historicism, the challenging of gender norms, and fetish.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Fashion: The Ultimate Book of Costume and Style |publisher=Dorling Kindersley Ltd |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4053-9879-4 |editor-last=Hennessy |editor-first=Kathryn |edition=1st |location=London |pages=390}}</ref> However, Seditionaries pieces were made from different cloths and fibres. The development of Westwood signatures – bondage trousers covered with straps to restrict, ‘unravelling’ loose-knit jumpers made of mohair, and long-sleeved tops fashioned from soft muslins, which featured graphic screen printed designs and fastenings to the sleeves to give the effect of a straight-jacket – during this period quickly became archetypal punk staples.<ref name="vam.ac.uk"/>

Westwood also inspired the style of punk icons, such as [[Viv Albertine]], who wrote in her memoir, "Vivienne and Malcolm use clothes to shock, irritate and provoke a reaction but also to inspire change. Mohair jumpers, knitted on big needles, so loosely that you can see all the way through them, T-shirts slashed and written on by hand, seams and labels on the outside, showing the construction of the piece; these attitudes are reflected in the music we make. It's OK to not be perfect, to show the workings of your life and your mind in your songs and your clothes."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Clothes, clothes, clothes : music, music, music : boys, boys, boys : a memoir|last=Albertine, Viv, 1954–|date=25 November 2014|isbn=9781250065995|edition= First U.S.|location=New York, N.Y.|pages=130–131|oclc=886381785}}</ref>
[[File:1981 Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren dress and sash, Pirates collection.jpg|thumb|Vivienne Westwood and [[Malcolm McLaren]] hand screen-printed cotton dress and sash, ''Pirate'' collection, 1981. Museum of Art Rhode Island '',''Design, tl 2008-2.]]
Westwood was disenchanted with the direction that adoptees had taken punk in, many of them uninterested in punk's political values, viewing the style of the movement as a marketing opportunity instead of a medium for radical change; with the dissolution of the Sex Pistols, Westwood's inspiration for her eponymous line shifted instead to the 18th century.<ref name="Scottie Andrew"/> She was particularly influenced by [[Pirates]] and the [[Incroyables and merveilleuses]] a radical movement amongst nobles who had survived the [[French Revolution]] which referenced the [[guillotine]] to which many had lost family members.<Ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/obituaries/article/2022/12/31/vivienne-westwood-british-designer-and-activist-dies-age-81_6009825_15.html | title=Vivienne Westwood, British designer and activist, dies age 81 | newspaper=Le Monde.fr | date=31 December 2022 }}</Ref>