Vivienne Westwood Essay

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Vivienne Westwood Vivienne Westwood is known to be at the centre of British fashion, and therefore is regarded as one of its most inventive and influential designers. Despite the fact that she is an obvious choice, i am still wanting to write about her in this essay as i am facinated with her work and the sheer diversity of her creations. I particularly admire Westwoods eccentric designs as they are always guaranteed to stand out from the crowd. Despite the fact that her collections are all extremely diverse in appearance, you can always spot an item that is hers. Vivienne Westwood is most prominently known as the fashion desigher who most closely associated with punks, the youth subculture that developed in England in the 1970s. Although her influence extends far beyond the era, Westwoods relationship with the punk subculture is critically important in order for people to have an understanding of her style. Similarly to how the mods and hippies had developed their own styles of dress and music, so did the punks. Yet while the hippies extolled love and peace, the punks emphasized sex and violence. 'Punk was about nihilism, blankness and chaos, and sexual deviancy, especially sadomasochism and fetishism'. The classic punk style featured safety pins piercing cheeks or lips, spiky hairstyles, and deliberately revolting clothes, which often appropriated the illicit paraphernalia of pornography.(see image 1) As a young fashion student, i admire Westwoods drive towards the more controversial issues of society such as pornography, which she reflected in her punk collection. Despite the fact that there would be a very dramatic response to her creations, she managed to succeed and grasp everyones attention. Westwood captured the essence of confrontational antifashion long before other designers recognized the subversive

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