English clothier and activist Vivienne Westwood, who was central to defining the aesthetic of the punk period, has handed away aged 81.
Westwood got here to prominence as a key determine within the punk style scene within the Seventies and went on to be named British Vogue Designer of the Yr in 1990, 1991 and 2006.
She handed away in the present day, 29 December, mentioned a statement published on her Twitter page.
“Vivienne Westwood died in the present day, peacefully and surrounded by her household, in Clapham, south London,” the assertion learn.
“The world wants folks like Vivienne to make a change for the higher.”
Alongside along with her position as a designer, she was identified for her activism drawing consideration to local weather change in addition to nuclear disarmament and civil rights.
Westwood was an envoy for Greenpeace, designing the organisation’s official Save the Arctic emblem in 2013, and an energetic supporter of the charity Cool Earth.
In 2019 she despatched fashions down the catwalk throughout London Vogue Week carrying aprons and tabards with anti-consumerist and local weather change slogans and mentioned in a chat that the “solely strategy to save the world” is to ban land possession.
Born in 1941, Westwood started designing within the early Seventies when she ran a boutique on King’s Highway often known as SEX with then-partner Malcolm McLaren. Throughout this time the pair contributed to the aesthetic of the early punk scene.
Westwood and McLaren would create quite a few collections within the early Eighties earlier than she launched her personal line in 1984.
Her husband and inventive associate, Andreas Kronthaler, mentioned: “I’ll proceed with Vivienne in my coronary heart.”
In 2004 the V&A held a retrospective exhibition for Westwood that was the biggest ever dedicated to a residing British clothier. She obtained an OBE in 1992 and in 2006 she was made a Dame for providers to style.
In 2019 she was awarded The Lifetime Achievement Medal on the London Design Medals.