Famous Fashion Designer Vivienne Westwood Died At 81
Famous fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood died on Thursday 20 December at the age of 81.
"It's 29 December. Vivienne Westwood died today peacefully with her family around her at her home in Clapham, London. The world needs people like Vivienne to change for the better," appeared written on her fashion house's official Twitter account.
Andreas Kronthaler, the fashion designer's husband, said: "I will continue the relationship with Vivienne in my heart. We both worked until the end, and she gave me a lot of ideas with which to continue the work. Thank you, my dear."
Vivienne Westwood married Kronthaler, a former student of hers in 1992. He later became the creative director of her company, gradually taking more and more responsibility for her design work.
Who Was Vivienne Westwood
By the 2000s, Vivienne Westwood was designing wedding gowns for models such as Dita Von Teese, who wore her purple gown to marry singer Marilyn Manson, and Princess Eugenie, who wore Westwood designs to Prince William and Catherine's wedding.
Her designs also appeared in the 2008 film version of "Sex And The City".
Memorable catwalk moments include her nine-inch platform shoes, which famously tripped up model Naomi Campbell.
Vivienne Westwood has become a vocal advocate for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is fighting extradition to the US to face charges under the Espionage Act. In July 2020, she dressed in canary yellow in a giant birdcage, warning of an Assange "stitch-up".
Assange's wife Stella, whose wedding dress was designed by Vivienne Westwood, hailed the designer as a "pillar of anti-establishment". Writing on behalf of her husband, who is currently in Belmarsh prison, she said Westwood was a "good friend" and "the best in Britain".
Vivienne Westwood Is Controversial
Pollution, climate change, and her support for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, were all inspirations for the protest t-shirts or banners worn by her models on the catwalk.
She dressed as then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for a magazine cover in 1989. In 2015 she protested by driving a white tank outside then-British Prime Minister David Cameron's house against shale gas development.
The fashion designer was awarded the Order of the British Empire medal, but she has shocked when she showed up at Buckingham Palace without underwear - a fact she proved to photographers after twirling her skirt.
Vivienne Westwood was born in Derbyshire, UK, and she worked as a primary school teacher before setting up the Let It Rock clothing store on King's Road in Chelsea with her then-partner Malcolm McLaren in the early 1970s.
The business was later renamed Sex, and McLaren began fronting a punk rock band made up of the shop's regular customers - the Sex Pistols. They became famous in 1976, wearing Westwood and McLaren designs.
His first proper fashion show took place in 1981, and Westwood called it the Pirate Collection and drew inspiration from British and French history.
