Fashion iconoclast Vivienne Westwood said she created clothes for heroes.
"Anyone who wants to feel romantic about themselves. If you ever wished you were 6 feet tall and you weren't, you just wear some of my clothes and that's what you'll feel like."
Westwood, who died on Thursday, practised what she preached: When she met the Queen in 1992, she arrived at Buckingham Palace without knickers. We know this because she bravely did a twirl in front of the paparazzi pack in the palace courtyard.
Fashion podcaster Avery Trufelman said Westwood's attitude was the calling card of her work throughout the decades.
"The bit of irreverence and cheekiness was always key in Vivienne's work," Trufelman said. "She was always giving a bit of a wink and not taking herself too seriously.
"And yet, at the same time, a hallmark of Vivienne's work was a fierce commitment to beauty. She was devoted to creating the most fantastical, strange surreal visions of beauty she could possibly summon. It always came through across every collection and every decade — in the absurdity and the levity — the gorgeousness came through."
Despite starting out with no formal training, Westwood's influence on global fashion was enormous.
"Whatever is ripped or dirty, whatever is transgressive and strange, it owes its lineage in some way to Vivienne," Ms Trufelman said.
"She was the anti-fashion fashion designer, who sought to find new ways of draping and ripping and patching that was unexpected and surprising. From Hot Topic to Martin Margiela, everyone has taken a page from her book."
Whether she was dressing the punks of London streets in the 70s, the supermodels of the 90s, or herself as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Westwood's fashion choices epitomised non-conformity and pushed her anti-establishment agenda.
Here are the four biggest fashion trends Westwood gave the world.
Punk
When the Sex Pistols burst onto the underground music scene in the mid-1970s, they were clad in leather, studs, chains, torn fabrics and padlocks.
But they didn't invent this punk style. It was the brainchild of Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols' manager.
Westwood and McLaren ran a shop at 430 King's Road, London from 1971. Westwood was in her early 30s at the time and a primary school teacher who sewed all the clothes in her living room. She had no formal training.
The shop was continually closing, renaming and re-opening with new styles. It started out as Let it Rock, then became Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die.
In 1974 it was rebranded SEX and borrowed materials, styles and hardware from the sex industry.
Westwood appreciated the "strange beauty" of latex and rubber according to Victoria and Albert Museum senior curator Claire Wilcox. She told the Articles of Interest podcast in 2018 that the clothes featured in SEX were covered in straps, skin tight and androgynous.
"[Westwood] said the mix of clientele when it was called SEX ranged from, as she said, people with a perverse interest in these types of garments and then kids off the street just wanting to be fashionable. So, it was sort of this hybrid moment," Ms Wilcox said.
The store re-launched again in 1977 and became known as Seditionaries. Ms Trufelman said it was this iteration of the store in which punk fashion truly emerged.
"Elements of Edwardian dandy, rocker, biker and sex worker all combined, catalysed with hard, fast music and political imagery," she said.
One reason Westwood's style proliferated so readily was anyone could follow her lead.
"It was part of this shared movement of rebellion that these clothes could be adopted and customised and adapted by anybody," Ms Wilcox said.
"Wherever you came from, however rich or poor. However old you were. Whatever sex you were, you could take these clothes on, perhaps you might save up to buy a pair of bondage trousers, but you'd customise your own T-shirt."
Pirate
In 1981 Westwood and McLaren held their first official collaborative catwalk show called Pirate.
Westwood's focus had moved from punk to 18th century dandies, Native American dress and plundering the Third World. The result was a collection filled with bright gold, oranges and yellows evoking images of bandits, buccaneers and dandies.
The series was romantic, unisex and became the look of choice for pop stars who formed the New Romantics movement like Boy George and Adam Ant. In fact, the latter hired McLaren for a post-punk re-branding six months after the Pirate catwalk show.
Author and former Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Kirstie Clements said Westwood really changed the landscape.
"I think one of the strongest fashion collections she ever did was the Pirate collection that she did in the early 80s," she told ABC News Breakfast.
"That influenced the new romantic era of puffy pirate blouses and Adam Ant.
"Again, that metaphor of challenging things and making a surprise appearance so to speak. You know, creating chaos."
The pagan years
In the late 80s Westwood moved to parodying the upper classes in an era she referred to as "the pagan years".
During this time her collections were influenced by ancient Greece and classic British tailoring with looks that referenced riding habits, wool suiting and men's Regency era tight-fitting pants.
Fashion historian Lydia Edwards said Westwood was one of the most historically conscious fashion designers of all time.
"She incorporated often very subtle references into her designs and gave relevance to various historical periods," she said.
"She also did so unsentimentally, without the rose-coloured glasses and 'nostalgic vintage' mirror that is so common these days."
In 1987 she launched her Harris Tweed collection. Westwood was instrumental in reviving the use of the only fabric in the world protected by its own act of parliament.
Under the act, Harris Tweed must be made from pure virgin wool that has been dyed and spun on the Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland and handwoven at the home of a weaver. The tweed is crafted without the use of automation or electricity.
Westwood used the tweed to create suiting with detachable elements inspired by medieval armour.
Anglomania
In the 90s Westwood created an aesthetic influenced by the elegance of British tailoring and the French love of exaggerated proportions.
The Anglomania collection of 1993/94 included tartan, furs, kilts, puffy silhouettes and very high heels – including those blue, nine-inch faux crocodile skin platforms Naomi Campbell famously fell over while wearing on a Paris runway in 1993.
In a 2019 British Vogue interview with Westwood, Campbell said there was a trick to walking in a pair of Westwood's sky-high platform shoes: you need to walk on your tip-toes.
Apparently the reason Campbell came undone on the catwalk was because she was wearing rubber tights under a plaid skirt. The tights caught at the thigh mid-stride and Campbell's right ankle buckled before she tripped over the shoes, crashing to the floor and landing on her behind.
To her credit she burst out laughing, got up and finished the show including doing another lap of the runway in those same heels.
The Anglomania collection also featured an original tartan design by Westwood.
She had invented her own clan, MacAndreas — named after her husband Andreas Kronthaler – and had the tartan officially recognised and woven by Locharron of Scotland. The tartan is included in the Scottish Register of Tartans.
Ms Trufelman said Westwood's strength was in her ability to change, grow and innovate.
"She stayed relevant until her very passing," she said.
"She was pivotal at every step of her career, that's what made her memorable.
"Westwood changed what we think beauty is. She made it dishevelled and dyed and ripped and strange. She paved the way for so many misfits across the decades and taught us there was elegance and strength in the periphery."
