Westwood was born in Derbyshire and at the age of 17 moved to Harrow, London with her family. She joined Harrow School of Art and started studying a fashion and silversmith course but left after saying ‘I didn’t know how a working – class girl could possibly make a living in the art world’. She then went onto being a primary school teacher whilst making her own jewellery and selling it on Portobello road.
Later on, after she was married, she met Malcolm McLaren. They moved in together and opened a shop called ‘Let it Rock’ where Westwood produced clothes. McLaren was interested in Bikers, Fetishes and prostitution. This became quite an influence on Westwood and it appeared with in her clothes, including safety pins, razor blades, and lavatory chains amongst other things in her designs.
McLaren became the manager of the Sex Pistols who then went onto promoting the clothes through the punk era, tartan fabrics were then later added become a main part of some designs.
In 1981 McLaren and Westwood produced their first collection called Pirates. It evoked the Golden age of piracy, highway men, dandies and buccaneers. All of the outfits were unisex. This collection was a major start to Westwood’s career and blew the country away.
From 1988 – 1992 became the ‘Pagan years’ were her influences changed from Punk to Ragamuffins then to Tattler girls. From 1993 – 1999 was called her ‘Anglomania’ and from 2000 until present is the ‘Exploration’.
Throughout her career she has incorporated political issues and in 1989 dressed as then Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, in a suit that she has bought but not yet delivered. Thatcher was not happy with this mostly because of the title ‘This woman was once a punk’.
Today Westwood has five exclusive shops; three in London, one in Leeds and one in Milan, therefore making it very exclusive. Westwood also has a couple of areas in larger shops but obviously they don’t have such a wide range
