Profiles

Glossop's glamourous roots

Glam queen-to-be, Vivienne Isabel Swire, was born in Glossop, Derbyshire on 8th April 1941.

Her parents both had creative jobs: her mother a weaver in the local cotton mills and her father came from a long line of shoemakers before running a post office.

Attending a local primary school and latterly Glossop Grammar School, Dame Westwood enjoyed customising her uniform, making and creating her own clothes.

Vivienne spent a term at Harrow Art College before deciding that a working-class girl like her couldn’t possibly make a living from art.

So in 1962, age 21, she bagged a job as a primary school teacher in Willesden, North London, got married to Derek Westwood and had a son called Benjamin.

The 'McClaren' Era

A few years later the marriage came to an end and Vivienne moved in with a friend of her brother’s, Malcolm McClaren who would become manager of eighties punk rockers, The Sex Pistols.

Dame Vivienne Westwood's collection

McClaren and Westwood had a child together Joseph Ferdinand Corré, now the co-owner of saucy underwear giant, Agent Provocateur.

The friendship brought together their passions for fashion and music. These passions McClaren judged as inseparable and their underground, anti-establishment, rock and roll creations culminated in the opening of 430 Kings Road shop known as ‘Sex’ initially but to be re-launched at the hands of McClaren through the eras.

When the shop was renamed ‘World’s End in 1981, the shop was transformed into a gallion and McClaren and Westwood’s first catwalk collection Pirate was created.

Best of British

Westwood’s creations are continually regarded as groundbreaking, extravagant and opulent and by herself she is said to want to use gashion for physical and mental arousal.

Vivienne has a host of awards to her name including being named as one of the world’s top six designers alongside Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix and Emanuel Ungaro.

British Designer of the year 1990 and 1991, Vivienne continued to shock after revealing she was wearing no underwear when receiving her OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 1992. However this did not stop her being made a Dame in the 2006 New Years Honours List.

Dame Vivienne of Glossop now earns a sweep of stores across the globe, most recently returning to the East Midlands opening a shop in Nottingham.