Share FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinWhatsappTelegramEmail 2.7K Vivienne Westwood, UK fashion designer whose five-decade career began in the mid-1970s punk movement in London and who remained devoted to its ethos of anti-establishment agitation throughout her life, has died at the age of 81. Her brand announced the news of her death on its social accounts. At the dawn of the punk era, Westwood, with her then partner Malcolm McLaren, helped to invent its “look” with designs that ranged from shredded T-shirts to bondage suits, emblazoned with anarchist symbols, Nazi swastikas, inverted crucifixes and words like “DESTROY.” Dressing the Sex Pistols, who McLaren managed and promoted, she created a vocabulary of provocation that would not only shake up British fashion of the times, but also go on to define her own runway collections and influence the work of generations of designers to come. More Articles You Would Love Amarelis Presents The Look Book For Her Fall/Winter 2016 Collection Innocencia De Florence Here Is How Kidnappers & Rapists Are Targeting Models In Ghana; Model Eve Tells Her Story A working-class girl from Derbyshire, who was largely untrained in fashion, Westwood was a primary school art teacher when she met McLaren in 1965 at the age of 24, already a young mother and separated from her first husband. Within a few years, she became the spikey-haired high priestess of punk who commanded London’s burgeoning counter-cultural movement while selling Teddy Boy clothes and bondage jeans from a cult retailer on the King’s Road. That she would ultimately be perceived as one of the most influential British designers of the 20th century, and alternatively as a batty eccentric for her political fulminations against consumerism and capitalism, underscored Westwood’s position as a fiercely independent creator who would help shape but never quite fit into the mainstream. “We wanted to undermine the establishment,” Westwood once said. “We hate it. We want to destroy it. We don’t want it. We were youth against age, that’s what it was.” Read More Like This On Outside Africa Industry Creatives UPCOMING PRIORITY EVENTS! VIEW ALL EVENTS To Submit stories Email: [email protected] or HashTag #FashionGHANA Share FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinWhatsappTelegramEmail FashionGHANA Admin FashionGHANA.com is a Fashion PR Company, Events planning & management team as well as Africa's leading Fashion Media House. Get Intouch with us and let's see how we can help you grow. info@FashionGHANAcom More For You Mozambican Designer Mabenna Unveils Her Latest Masterpiece Look Book For The “Melanin” Collection #fGBrideAndGroom: Ghanaian Doctors Dr. Adwoa and Dr. Kobbie Tie The Knot In Stunning... AI Artist Dana K. Booker Explores The Gorgeous African Beauties Of Columbia In... Nigeria’s Lady Maker Launches The Stunning Look Book For Her Waste To Wonder... Cameroonian UFC champion Francis Ngannou’s 15 Month Old Son Dies #fGSTYLE: Tips On How To Color Code With Your Lover; The African Way #OOTD: Simply Tacha Is Goes Beyond Fierce In Her Medlin Boss Red Fringed... Looking For Ghanaian Kente Bridal Inspiration? Look No Further Nanice Gorgeous AI Wedding... #fGSTYLE: From The Church To The Lounge; Treat Your Sundays With These Trendy... #OOTD: Queen Of Afrobeats Yemi Alade Proves She’s Still The Queen Of African...