Dame Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer credited with bringing punk and new wave fashion into the mainstream, has died. She was 81. Westwood died at her Clapham, South London on Thursday, surrounded by her family.
Westwood’s death was confirmed by Westwood’s fashion house on Twitter. “The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better,” the statement read. No cause of death was disclosed.
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“I will continue with Vivienne in my heart,” Westwood’s husband and creative partner Andreas Kronthaler said in a statement to BBC News. “We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with.” She is also survived by her two sons, Ben Westwood, 59, whom she shared with her first husband, Derek Westwood; and Joseph Corre, 55, her son with the late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren.
Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in Tintwistle, Cheshire on April 8, 1941. She was a teacher first before she opened her clothing shop Let It Rockย on King’s Road in Chelsea with McLaren in the early 1970s. The store was soon renamed Sex and the Sex Pistols were regular visitors. The group wore Westwood and McLaren’s designs. Westwood was at the forefront of the punk fashion scene of the 1970s, and she continued developing vibrant, unique designs for the rest of her life. She was made a Dame for her contribution to fashion in 2006.
Outside of the fashion world, Westwood was an outspoken activist. She called for Julian Assange’s release from custodyย and dedicated a 2013 collection to Chelsea Manning. She was also a longtime supporter of the left-wing Green Party and took action to raise awareness of climate change. In 2009, she released an anti-consumerism manifesto, Active Resistance to Propaganda, which attracted critics who thought it was hypocritical of her to take that stance while still working in high fashion. Westwood is the subject of the 2018 documentary Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist.
After news broke of her death, fashion industry stars paid tribute to Westwood. “I’m sad to learn of the passing of legendary designer and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood,” Victoria Beckham wrote. “My thoughts are with her family at this incredibly sad time.”
“A sad day, Vivienne Westwood was and will remain a towering figure in British fashion,” U.K. culture minister Michelle Donelan tweeted. “Her punk style rewrote the rule book in the 1970s, and was widely admired for how she stayed true to her own values throughout her life.” The Victoria and Albert Museum, which houses many of her works, wrote, “We are saddened to learn about the passing of legendary designer Vivienne Westwood. A true revolutionary and rebellious force in fashion.”
