News Desk
ISLAMABAD/PARIS: Leading British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who blended music and fashion together to help define punk and brought recalcitrant politics to the catwalk, died at the age of 81, her family said on Thursday.
Westwood and fashion
Westwood made provocation and goading itself into an art form, from the leather bondage gear, she popularized in the 1970s to the time she went to Buckingham Palace without underwear to receive her damehood from the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Her fashion label’s Twitter account said that Vivienne Westwood died peacefully on Thursday, surrounded by her family in Clapham, South London. It said that the world needed people like Vivienne to make a change for the better.
In a statement, her husband Andreas Kronthaler said that “we have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank y,ou darling.”
In their tributes, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum described Westwood as a “true revolutionary and rebellious force in fashion”. Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said that Westwood was a “towering figure”.
Her punk style rewrote the rule book in the 1970s and Westwood was widely admired for staying true to her values throughout her life,” she wrote on Twitter.
In her colourful career, Westwood sent a bare-breasted, Kate Moss, down the runway devouring ice cream. She almost broke Naomi Campbell’s ankle when the model failed to stay upright on a pair of her nine-inch platform heels.
