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LONDON, Dec. 30 (AP) — Vivienne Westwood, an influential fashion maverick who played a key role in the punk movement, died Thursday at the age of 81.
Westwood’s eponymous fashion house announced her death on social media platforms, saying she passed away peacefully. The statement did not disclose a cause of death.
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Westwood’s fashion career began during the punk wave of the ’70s, when her radical take on urban street style took the world by storm. But she went on to enjoy a long career, starring in a string of successful fashion shows in London, Paris, Milan and New York.
The name Westwood has become synonymous with style and attitude, even as she shifts focus each year. Her scope is wide and her work is never predictable.
As her stature grew, she seemed to transcend fashion, with her designs featured in museum collections around the world.
The young woman who had defied the British establishment ended up among the leading figures, using her elite status to lobby for environmental reform even as she kept dyeing her hair her trademark bright orange.
Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, said Westwood would be credited with pioneering the punk look, combining her radical approach to fashion with the Sex Pistols, run by her then-partner. Developed in conjunction with anarchist punk music, Malcolm McLaren.
“They gave the punk movement a look, a style that was so aggressive that it broke anything that had been in the past,” he says. “Torn shirts, pins, provocative slogans. She introduced postmodernism. It’s been influential since the mid-’70s. The punk movement never went away—it’s part of our fashion lexicon. It’s mainstream now.” .”
Westwood’s long career has been marked by contradictions: she has been a rebel throughout her life and has been honored several times by Queen Elizabeth II. Even in her 60s, she dresses like a teenager and has become an outspoken advocate against global warming, warning that the planet will be destroyed if climate change is left unchecked.
During her punk days, Westwood’s clothes were often deliberately shocking: T-shirts adorned with drawings of naked boys and sadomasochistic “bondage pants” were standard at her popular London store. But Westwood was able to transition from punk to high fashion without missing a beat, and keep her career going without succumbing to self-irony.
“She’s been trying to reinvent fashion. Her work is provocative, it’s aggressive. It’s very much rooted in the British tradition of parody, irony and satire. She’s very proud of her British identity, but she Still sent it out,” Bolton said.
One of the aggressive and controversial designs features the swastika, an inverted image of Jesus Christ on the cross and the word “destroy”. In her autobiography, co-authored with Ian Kelly, she quotes Chile’s Augusto Pinochet as part of a statement against politicians torturing people. In a 2009 interview with Time Magazine, when asked if she regretted the swastika design, Westwood said no.
“I didn’t, because we’re just saying to the older generation, we don’t accept your values or taboos, you’re all fascists,” she replied.
In her early years, she was passionate about her work, but as time went on, she seemed to tire of the hustle and bustle. After decades of designing, she sometimes speaks hopefully of moving beyond fashion so she can focus on environmental issues and educational projects.
“Fashion can be so boring,” she told The Associated Press after showing one of her new collections at a 2010 fashion show. “I wanted to find something else to do.” At the time, she was talking about plans to start a TV series about arts and sciences. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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