With a mother who worked in a cotton factory and a father from a family of shoemakers, it seemed destined for Vivienne Westwood to pursue a steady career in fashion. However, the indelible mark that she would eventually scribble all over the business and the broader culture was instead what she calls “built-in mischief,” unleashed awakened by a pivotal 1965 meeting with Malcolm McLaren. Together, the two continue to shape the visual language of punk music. And when their partnership ended, Ms. Westwood continued to single-handedly pursue what she once told historian Jon Savage was her tendency to “react against anything orthodox,” dig through costume history to find tights, corsets (worn as an outerwear), duchess’ extravagant outfits, miners’ hides, puffy hemlines, and resolute clan plaid pushes fashion towards her raw and edgy conception of beauty, her eclectic political views, and her lifelong determination to remove blockages and break all norms.
