The only designer in the history of fashion to actively discourage the acquiring of clothes, Vivienne Westwood’s mantra – Buy Less, Choose Well, Make it Last – was the complete antithesis to contemporary consumerism. A unique mix of maverick and renegade, aesthete and activist, Westwood was a quietly spoken whirlwind with disarming honesty and unpretentious air.
Westwood, who has died at the age of 81, had a penchant for poetry by TS Eliot, paintings by Boucher and caricatures by Hogarth. One of her favourite books was Alice in Wonderland, another The Grapes of Wrath. Proud of the fact she had been arrested during the punk era for selling pornographic T-shirts, and dragged off a boat by the police during the now infamous 1977 Sex Pistols performance on the Thames, her passions ranged from dressing up to human rights. The Vivienne Westwood signature – an orb surrounded by Saturn – became one of the most iconic symbols in the fashion world.
