I interviewed Vivienne Westwood (obituary, 31 December) twice – in 1980 in SEX, her shop in the Kings Road, and in 1990 in her Camden Town workplace. Both times she talked about the research she was doing for specific collections. ‘I’d never have designed the clothes if I hadn’t done the research,’ she said. Largely self-taught, research and ideas were, for Westwood, integral to the making of clothes. She designed clothes with meaning, respect for the fabric and cut, and full of cultural subversion.
