Vivienne Westwood is a designer everyone has heard of, whether you are a fashionista or anti-fashion you know her name. She opened her first shop, Let It Rock, at 430 King's Road and then in 1974 it was renamed Sex; selling anarchy tops with logos as controversial as the Nazi logo. The shop had the slogan ‘rubberwear for the office’ (Vivienne Westwood, no date). These expressive, controversial punk clothes even lead to people getting arrested and these tops got confiscated. This controversial punk movement that Westwood attached herself to and became one of the lead fashion icons in the movement came from the recessions at the time. British youth came out and wanted to go against the establishment and show their opinions in a creative way. Young said the music influence of the punk era inspired people that you 'did not need to be able to play an instrument to be in a band - you just had to have something to say.' (2002).
Westwood's business partner at the time was McLaren, together they promoted clothing through dressing punk bands such as the Sex Pistols which worked outstandingly well. They were able to really target the London rebellious style culture in a way that appealed to them. Westwood's romance with punk culture came to and end with the collapse of the Sex Pistols and the acceptance of Punk into mainstream culture. References: Boyes, M. (2017) Vivienne Westwood. Available at: http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/vivienne-westwood-biography (Accessed: 06 November 2017). Unknown. (1976) Alan Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Jordan and Vivienne Westwood at ‘Sex’, Kings Road. Available at: http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/fashion/a-brief-history-of-punk-fashion-79145 (Accessed: 07 November 2017). Unknown. (1976) The Sex Pistols. Available at: https://therake.com/stories/icons/vivienne-westwood-rebel-with-a-cause/ (Accessed: 07 November 2017). Vivienne Westwood(2017) 430 Kings Road. Available at: http://www.viviennewestwood.com/en-gb/history/430-kings-road (Accessed: 06 November 2017). Youngs, I. (2017) A brief history of punk. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2601493.stm (Accessed: 06 November 2017). Jiroe. (2018) Melrose Sunset. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/0BwMq5Qp8Lk (Accessed: 08 June 2020).
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