Vivienne Westwood will be celebrated in history as one of the greatest fashion disrupters. Her strong convictions about the planet led her to become one of the first designers to understand the impact of excessive production on the planet. Throughout her career, she succeeded in creating a UK-based world-class luxury fashion brand that will continue to inspire fashion beyond her lifetime. 

She will be remembered for her imaginative use of tweed, which celebrates British and more specifically Scottish heritage. Vivienne Westwood played an essential part in the life and evolution of UK fashion. She notably supported numerous British textile companies, including Harris Tweed – to the point of creating a logo based on the protected Harris Tweed Orb. 

Vivienne Westwood has been a source of inspiration for over 30 years. She talked openly about the challenges that the industry and the UK faced, until her very last days. Weeks before passing away, she continued to passionately discuss about protecting our planet as well as driving sustainable and ethical production. She said:  

“Our economic system, run for profit and waste and based primarily on the extractive industries, is the cause of climate change. We have wasted the earth’s treasure and we can no longer exploit it cheaply.”

 

Over the past three decades, Vivienne Westwood has been a regular feature at London Fashion Week and at key international trade shows with UKFT. Paul Alger MBE, director of International Affairs at UKFT, said:  

“I first saw her after a show in Florence at Pitti Uomo, the accessories collection has been shown at Premiere Classe in Paris and in New York and when UKFT has looked to open new markets and territories, we always have to make sure that the market meets UKFT’s export test: “do Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith sell there?” Why? Because between Paul and Vivienne, they represent the largest part of the cultural references needed to understand UK fashion and textiles! 

When UKFT worked with DIT on the first ever British day at Moscow Fashion Week (how times have changed!) Vivienne Westwood was our obvious choice for star billing. It was one of the more interesting weeks in my personal career full of surprises, but they came, they saw and they conquered! 

Unlike many UK designers, Vivienne leaves behind an unusual legacy. Not only as a challenger of thought, a disrupter with a healthy disregard for authority and the shortcomings of political power but as an astute woman who managed to create a world-class design house around sustainability and ethical trade in fashion and textiles – one which (uniquely) will live on long after Vivienne earthly life has come to an end. This is exceptional. How many designers set up a business they know will outlive them? When Vivienne left us this year, as much of a loss as this is, she knew that her brand will outlive her and that the things she stood for will continue. In this, she is one of the world’s best embodiments of the “business of fashion and textiles”.

In doing so she has left us all a great gift: the message that to be a designer is one of the greatest privileges in life, but to be a success you must have a firm grounding of business sense, that creatives need to balance their own talents with business and finance knowledge and that you can build a fashion business and look after the environment and the people who work for the business throughout the supply chain. That you need to be present in and invest in new markets and visit often, but you don’t have to kowtow to authority.”

 

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