Manner designer Vivienne Westwood dead at 81

British designer Vivienne Westwood, regarded as fashion’s “high priestess of punk,” died on Thursday, December 29 at the age of 81.

Westwood’s namesake manner property tweeted that she passed absent “peacefully and surrounded by her spouse and children, in Clapham, South London.”

The manufacturer also shared the sad news on Instagram, composing, “Vivienne ongoing to do the factors she cherished, up till the final second, creating, doing the job on her artwork, creating her reserve, and changing the planet for the better. She led an amazing lifetime. Her innovation and impact above the past 60 a long time has been immense and will proceed into the potential.”

Westwood’s many years-very long style profession started in the 1970s — shortly right after she achieved Malcom McLaren, who would go on to manage the Sexual intercourse Pistols. Jointly, Westwood and McLaren opened their well known Sex boutique on King’s Highway in London, which sold provocative fetish-encouraged fashions befitting its title (of which it’d cycle via several about the several years).

“It adjusted the way people today appeared. I was messianic about punk, viewing if 1 could put a spoke in the process in some way. I understood there was no subversion without having concepts. It is not plenty of to want to destroy every little thing,” Westwood at the time explained of her perform.

She and McLaren started showing their very own collections in the early 1980s, blending the edgy punk references they understood and loved with components of new romanticism her now-signature corsets and the “mini-crini,” a quick and alluring version of the Victorian crinoline, exemplified this aesthetic.

And Westwood’s conduct was as subversive as her type in 1992, she arrived at Buckingham Palace to obtain an an Get of the British Empire (OBE) from the Queen, twirled for the cameras — and disclosed she was heading commando beneath her seemingly conservative skirt accommodate.

While certainly eye-catching, Westwood’s creations — which have ranged from T-shirts printed with naked breasts to pirate hats — have from time to time sacrificed practicality for effects. In the course of her iconic 1993 “Anglomania” exhibit, she sent out versions donning system heels so perilously higher, Naomi Campbell famously took a tumble correct on the runway.

In a lot more recent several years, Westwood’s draped and corseted styles have develop into favorites of famous people which includes Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa, Hailey Baldwin and Olivia Rodrigo, to title but a couple.

When Dita Von Teese married Marilyn Manson in 2006, she did so dressed in purple Westwood Princess Eugenie donned three various looks by the designer for Kate Middleton and Prince William’s royal marriage in 2011.

A Vivienne Westwood wedding gown was famously highlighted in the 2008 “Sex and the City” film, with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw deciding upon a voluminous strapless robe by the designer for her wedding to Chris Noth’s Mr. Big — and while not all viewers loved the bridal type, perhaps that was the stage.

“The only rationale I am in manner is to destroy the phrase ‘conformity’,” the flame-haired designer wrote in her 2014 biography. “Nothing is interesting to me except it is acquired that element.”