[News] Vivienne Westwood RIP

[clapham_gull]

RIP Long term Clapham resident who nearly knocked me over with her bike during the pandemic. Still cycling on the common at a grand old age and used to routinely cycle into the West End.

The flat she shared with Malcolm McLaren on Nightingale Lane is still owned by the family I think.

Bit too young to write lyrically about the punk era. I'll let others take over.

 

[Weststander]

Iconic ground-breaking designer, RIP Vivienne.

@HWT …. did you buy any punk clothing from their King’s Road shop?

 

[Machiavelli]

What a day. Two stars have passed. VW kept designing , as well as cycling so I've learnt.

 

[SuperFurrySeagull]

The end of an icon, no less. RIP

 

[clapham_gull]

If anyone knows Clapham Old Town, pretty sure her place is next door but one to The Sun pub.

Beautiful old town house but right in the centre of things.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Ahead of her time, but a trendsetter at the same time. An icon of the fashion world.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The wife wore a Westwoood dress and shoes on our wedding day. RIP

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Did she invent the style that inspired me in the mid 70s? I would say that yes, yes she did. A style brought to life by the attitude of the wearer. RIP

 

[The Clamp]

I was a bit young to be involved in the punk wave but I much admire VW. A true trail-blazer.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Iconic ground-breaking designer, RIP Vivienne.

@HWT …. did you buy any punk clothing from their King’s Road shop?

Couldn't afford it! I hate to say this but they gave stuff away to their little clique, but charged a lot to tourists. Everyone I knew in 76/77 rendered their own clothes to suit the purpose. 'Ripped and torn' and all that. Nobody I knew wore bondage trousers, for example. When local chav twats were chasing you down North End road, Fulham, you needed to be able to flex the old legs But she inspired the style we acquired for ourselves, which was the punk ethic at the time. DIY.

By 77/78 the style at gigs (other than at the Roxy and Vortex, which was full of JCL lookalikes) was downbeat, with a little eyeliner and earrings (one ear only). Straight leg trousers (this was still the ear of 'flares'), DMs (shoes not boots) or brothel creepers (annoyed the teds ), old man shirts, donkey jacket or second hand tweed (yes, I know) and if you could afford it a black leather biker's jacket. Oh, and I had a lovely onezie! Actually it was a flying suit; step in and zip up. The army surplus shop at the end of Tottenham court road was mecca. You never saw anyone in her clobber at gigs by then.

The flamboyant coloured mohicans that adorn the London post cards were a separate phenomenon. Very quickly that sort of look became a fossil look, like the ted look. I was appalled when Strummer got a mohican. And while I am working up a rant, American punk bands like Black Flag have no connection with the UK breed (that morphed into other genres seamlessly). Black Flag started just after Magazine. Talk about chalk and cheese.

Back to Vivienne, she seemed a bit dotty even back then, but nice. I saw her on Paxman about 20 years ago, and she got totally flummoxed and was unable to say anything. She communicated with what she made. That was enough. From her inspiration came stuff that had nothing to do with punk, namely Boy George and all the pretty things that hung out at Heaven and other more inaccessible 'gay' venues in the west end. I remember me and my pal Chris trying to get into some of these places, dressed to the nines (well, I was in a suit far to big for my nine and a half stone of wet piss frame, and was bricking it, fearing rejection, and Chris just looked divine as always) and just thrilled when the stony faced bat on the door let us in, while shoeing away the 'normals' . What a snob I was back then. Nothing has changed

 

[BrightonCottager]

She was a true British eccentric, who helped nurture the punk scene and gave it the image. I agree with all that @Harry Wilson's tackle says above - especially the bit about needing to rub from attackers (normally Ted's in my case as I lived out near Harrow and Uxbridge). What she and Maclaren created was subtly different from the US punk scene that predated the Pistols, but it kickstarted all the great music that came afterwards. RIP Vivienne.

 

[Questions]

I remember her on Wogan once.

 

[Weststander]

The wife wore a Westwoood dress and shoes on our wedding day. RIP

Don't jump the gun, Mrs.HT is far too young.