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 She
turns the clothes upside down; she cuts the stitches and creates the models that
could be hardly called «something like a jacket» or «kind of skirt» or «sort of
cardigan». She is old and main rioter in the world of fashion. She turned the
fashion from upside down, then put it back to upright position and left as it
is, shaky and confused. Vivien Westwood is the Queen of punk and the Goddess of
provocative actions.
Never
had she wanted to be the designer. She wanted to get married, what she did but
regretted soon about it. At the time when the life was active and adventurous
for others, she was an average housewife in the small doggy British town,
living like dying slowly. She left the family and moved to London, and that was
her first protest to the well-bred society where the polite and well-bred wife
should not be so careless and adventurous.
The
society also disliked people who distinguished against the crowd. And that was the
second protest by Vivien. London of the 60s was full of rioting youth who was tired
of offish parents and the society stable and boring. Mediating children of flowers
were replaced by the outrageous punks who were ready for everything to protect
their internal freedom.
Vivien
got acquainted with Malcolm McLaren, the student of the art college of
Goldsmith, the outrageous person familiar with the local police. Together with him
she opened the store in Kings-Road, 430, specialized on the clothes and «Teddy
boy» accessories just remember the style of young John Lennon). Then they sold
fetishist clothes. Malcolm was one of the facilitators of the reputed «Sex Pistols»,
and their store was regularly visited by punks, rock-stars and friends from all
Britain.
And
it was the time when Vivien started to sew. She did not feel like being a
designer, she just replicated the models fashionable in their society, like
tight trousers, and specific jackets. And she realized once that the clothes so
much beloved by boys from well-bred and wealthy families, is not suitable to
the style and culture of punks. Absolutely different things. She took the scissors
and cut the sleeves of the classic T-shirt, cut to holes the knees of new jeans,
and this feature is still used by young «geeks» of all kinds, like spiked
collars, riveted bracelets, chains, clinches and English pins.
She
created the punk style with her own hands and made any contra-culture movements
popular. Today this style is the visit card of the British fashion and the beloved
street style of British youth, irrespective of their ideology and adherence to
any subculture.
Once
Malcolm disappeared when the idea to build his own plans came in his mind. The idea
was not so good. The youth riot seized to an end, and gradually new values were
developed in the society. And at the same time the new generation of people with
internal freedom appeared in the world that did not riot but defended their
independence in other, more civilized ways.
The
ideological component of Vivien's success appeared to fade and she was confused
what to do with all her skill she acquired. And in 1981 she showed her first collection
on London stage, she won Paris in a month, and in two month her collections
were popular. The Japanese progressive youth
welcomed her ideas, and the collections greatly and favorably managed to form
the popular street fashion. And she could not lose with such experience.
And
Vivien coped with her problems. She found the new component of her success: she
turned the riot into the fashion. She got inspired from sub cultural images, in
history and by the time lapse she found what she sought long time ago, the
epoch of Dumas. She became to behave naughty in the context of adopted
tendencies and greatly succeeded. She was the Queen of punks and she turned
into the Goddess of provocations, and she is too indifferent to criticism of
her works by anyone.
The
less riots, the more style! The glare disappeared, and only mockery was there.
Vivien Westwood appears in the public in classic costume, she has a pendant
with the piggy for luck, and the tailoring appears to be not classic at close
distance. Her models may appear in the feminine dress, or in trousers. She is still
artistic with scissors and tears her dress for patches, and every new
collection is the same - the titbit for fashion editor from all over the world.
What is prepared now by Vivien Westwood& what she would do now? She will make
you sign with astonishment and admiration, be sure.
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