Vivienne Westwood husband-English fashion designer and businesswoman, Vivienne Westwood was born on April 8th, 1941 in Tintwistle, Derbyshire in the United Kingdom.

She died at the age of 81 years on December 29th, 2022 in Clapham, London in the United Kingdom. Westwood has been described as a huge inspiration to the fashion world, a legend and a brilliantly creative personality.

Westwood was born to Gordon Swire and Dora Swire. She shares the same parents with her brother whose name has not been disclosed to us at the moment.

Westwood enrolled in a jewelry and silversmithing programme at the University of Westminster, which was once known as the Harrow Art School, in 1958 when her family relocated to Harrow, Greater London.

She became a primary school teacher after getting a job in a factory and enrolling in a teacher-training college. She made her own jewelry during this time and sold it from a booth on Portobello Road.

Westwood’s designs were original and served as a reflection of her personal philosophy. Gary Ness, who provided Westwood with ideas and titles for her collections, worked with her on a few occasions.

Pirate was the first fashion line McLaren and Westwood presented to the press and prospective global customers.

Their collaboration later resulted in collections with the themes Savages (shown in late 1981), Buffalo/Nostalgia Of Mud (shown in spring 1982), Punkature (shown in late 1982), Witches (shown in early 1983), and Worlds End (1984) that were created in Paris and London (later renamed Hypnos, shown late 1983).

Following the college’s successful petition to the Privy Council for permission to grant degrees, Patricia Rawlings, the Chair of King’s College London, contacted Westwood in 2007 to create an academic gown for the institution. The academic dresses for King’s College by Westwood were unveiled in 2008.

Westwood’s creations were displayed in the Barcelona fashion event The Brandery in July 2011. Richard Branson and Westwood collaborated extensively to create the clothes for the Virgin Atlantic crew.

The female crew wore a crimson suit as their uniform, which had carefully placed darts around the bust area to draw attention to the wearers’ hips and curves. The guys wore a three-piece suit in burgundy and grey with accents on the lapels and pockets.

The value of Westwood’s brand was grossly underestimated by her firm, Vivienne Westwood Ltd, which agreed to pay about £350,000 in tax to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Her UK corporation had paid £840,000 to control the Luxembourg-based Latimo in 2002 for the privilege of using her trademarks.

HMRC claimed that the brand had been undervalued after reviewing the agreement, and following discussion, the two parties determined that her trademarks were worth more than twice that amount.

The Vivienne Westwood Group and Manchester-based Hervia, which handled seven stores for the fashion brand, came to an agreement in March 2012 to discontinue their long-standing UK franchise partnership.

The conversion of some Hervia stores to Westwood in 2013 was attributed with increasing pre-tax earnings for Vivienne Westwood Ltd. from £527,683 to £5,000,000, and group sales increased from £25.4,000,000 to £30.1,000,000.

The business declared in March 2015 that it would launch a three-story location in midtown Manhattan by the end of the year. In early 2016, a second 3,200 square foot store in a building that also houses the business’ headquarters and showrooms was planned to open in Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris as a follow-up.

Vivienne Westwood Ltd. ran 12 retail locations in the UK in 2015, one of which was an outlet store in Bicester Village.

When Dita Von Teese wed Marilyn Manson in a formal ceremony in 2005, she donned a purple wedding gown by Westwood. In 2009, Marion Cotillard attended the London premiere of her movie Public Enemies wearing a red satin strapless dress by Westwood.

She attended the Chopard Lunch in Cannes in 2013 wearing a pink and ivory striped dress by Westwood Couture. At the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011, Princess Eugenie wore three Westwood creations to the pre-wedding dinner, the wedding, and the after-wedding party.

At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014, Pharrell Williams wore a Westwood Buffalo hat that was originally part of the brand’s 1982–1983 lineup. The hat gained so much traction that it spawned a separate Twitter account. Pharrell’s debut appearance included a similar Westwood Buffalo hat in 2009.

The 2008 motion picture version of the television series Sex and the City includes Westwood’s fashions. In the movie, Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big, their longtime partner, get engaged. She is asked to model wedding dresses because she writes for Vogue and one of the designs is by Westwood.

Westwood is also known for being the author or co-author of books like Fashion in Art: The Second Empire and Impressionism, in which she examines the connections between the worlds of fashion and the arts.

Westwood received a commission from the art platform CIRCA, established in 2020 by British-Irish artist Josef O’Connor, to deliver a brand-new video piece on the Piccadilly Lights screen in Piccadilly Circus, London, in honor of her 80th birthday.

Who was Vivienne Westwood married to?

Westwood was married twice in her life. She got married to Derek Westwood on July 21st, 1962. They had a son named Benjamin Westwood who was born in 1963.

Derek and Westwood’s marriage broke up after she met Malcolm McLaren. After relocating to Balham’s Thurleigh Court, Westwood and McLaren welcomed their son Joseph Corré in 1967.

As of the time of her death, Westwood was not married to anyone.