Following her recent death, much has been written about Vivienne Westwood, and emphasis has been placed on her astonishing life, full of revolutionary ideas. But what are the pillars of her aesthetic language?
At the beginning of the Seventies, the young designer's partnership with Malcom McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols, was an event destined to guide the fashion of the off-road subcultures of the time and to inaugurate the birth of Brit-punk. The boutique at 430 Kings Road in Chelsea changed its name collection after collection; from “Let it Rock” to “Too Fast to Live, Too Young To Die” from “Sex” to “Seditionaries; Clothes for Heroes" while McLaren's band firmly placed itself at the top of the charts with irreverent songs such as "God Save the Queen".
It is in this melting pot of ferment that the forces that gave life to the "Punk" movement were created, and Westwood was its godmother, managing to summarize in clothing a reactionary youth movement compared to typically British Thatcherism and neoliberalism, in clear contradiction with its cultural predecessor, the hippie movement.
Punk was a reckless attitude, “Devil may care”, which aimed to be recognizable through the rejection of the canons and rules of fashion itself. And while the Sex Pistols' guitars distorted "God Save the Queen", Vivienne Westwood took possession of two Sovereign Symbols of the English monarchy: the "Royal Stuart Tartan" and the "Orb".
Tartans are woolen fabrics of Scottish origin, characterized by patterns precisely defined in both colors and proportions, and represent a very important cultural heritage for British culture. At the end of the 4th century. AD, the time in which the Roman legions abandoned Britain, the Scottish "Clans" began to dress in specific checked fabrics, called "Tartans", with the aim of strengthening group identity and belonging.
The proudly Gaelic Highlanders produced their fabrics in bright, nuanced tones to show off their status. These fabrics have passed through the centuries and still today have decorative characteristics that make their appearance unmistakable. They are characterized by large colored and symmetrical fields that are repeated identically in both warp and weft. One of these, called the "Royal Steward", is traditionally linked to the British crown and its use should be authorized by the Royals themselves.
This symbol of the British monarchy, the army and the nationalists was redistributed by Westwood to youth subcultures, torn and pierced by pins and razor blades to express protest, anarchy and alienation towards the consumerist society. At various times the Tartans have had a slight aura of conservatism, of authority, of national heritage and idyllic countryside; so from 70s punk to 90s grunge it was fun to tear it to shreds.
Similar story for "The Orb", the ancient jewel symbol of the power of the British sovereigns. The Christian world is represented by its cross mounted on a globe, and the bands of jewels that divide it into three sections represent the three continents known in medieval times.
Studded with emeralds, rubies and sapphires, surrounded by rose-cut diamonds and single rows of pearls, at the coronation, the Orb is placed in the monarch's right hand to symbolize his royalty. Furthermore, the “Orb Mark” is the distinctive recognition of Harris Tweed, another fabric strongly rooted in the sense of British national belonging, and guarantees that this fabric is dyed, spun and woven by hand by the islanders of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in their homes, according to the laws outlined in the Harris Tweed Act of Parliament. Vivienne also emptied this symbol of sacredness, making it the trade mark of her very successful brand.
It is curious to note that all these symbols, born as a rebellion against consumerism, have become catwalk icons over time; the Westwood style is one of the most appreciated by the world of the international jet set and "The Orb" has become a graceful goldsmith's jewel, present in the wish-list of many trend setters of generation Z.
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