Published in 2016
481 pages
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI (born Vivienne Isabel Swire) is a British fashion designer largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. Westwood has 11 exclusively-owned shops in UK; four in London, and one in Bicester Village, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham. She also has showrooms in Milan, Paris and Los Angeles.
In 1992, Westwood was awarded an OBE, which she collected from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. At the ceremony, Westwood was knicker-less, which was later captured by a photographer in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace. Westwood later said “I wished to show off my outfit by twirling the skirt. It did not occur to me that, as the photographers were practically on their knees, the result would be more glamorous than I expected”,and added “I have heard that the picture amused the Queen”. Westwood advanced from OBE to DBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List for services to fashion, and has thrice earned the award for British Designer of the Year.
What is this book about?
Vivienne Westwood began Get A Life, her online diary, in 2010 with an impassioned post about Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Since then, she has written two or three entries each month, discussing her life in fashion and her involvement with art, politics and the environment.
Reading Vivienne’s thoughts, in her own words, is as fascinating and provocative as you would expect from Britain’s punk dame – a woman who always says exactly what she believes. And what a life! One week, you might find Vivienne up the Amazon, highlighting tribal communities’ struggles to maintain the rainforest; another might see her visiting Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy, or driving up to David Cameron’s house in the Cotswolds in a full-on tank. Then again, Vivienne might be hanging out with her friend Pamela Anderson, or in India for Naomi Campbell’s birthday party, or watching Black Sabbath in Hyde Park with Sharon Osbourne.
The beauty of Vivienne Westwood’s diary is that it is so fresh and unpredictable. In book form, generously illustrated with her own selection of images, it is irresistible.
