Vivienne Westwood

Product Information

I’ve never been to Puerto Rico. But somewhere I’d seen Puerto Ricans wearing their bras in the street and people who dressed in a little pair of shorts with a bra, and then just went to the shop with Coca-Cola cans instead of rollers in their hair. So it became a look not only of a beachcomber or somebody who’d been raped or whatever…' Vivienne Westwood hat im Leben nichts geschenkt bekommen. Für sie war ihr Leben meistens ein Kampf - Egal ob gegen Konventionen, Malcom oder die Geschichtsvollzieher. Es ist wirklich ein wahres Wunder, dass sie nie aufgegeben hat. Doch wer beharrlich geht, kommt auch ans Ziel. Westwood had 11 exclusively-owned shops in UK; four in London, and one in Bicester Village, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham. She also has showrooms in Milan, Paris and Los Angeles.

At school, too, Vivienne saw herself as heroic, a ‘kind of champion, even as a little girl’. The supervising teacher would come into the lunch room each day and say: ‘Stand up whoever was talking.’ One day, Vivienne decided to test ‘the rhetoric, as it were’. When the teacher came in, she stood up and said, ‘It was me,’ even though she hadn’t in fact been talking. This is such an amazing book about the ongoing legend of Vivienne Westwood, who played an indispensable role in the formation of punk. The book opens with Kelly at a fashion event with Westwood, and as readers, it felt like we were also there, following Westwood around as she chats about her life. Und so lässt sie uns teilhaben an der Nachkriegszeit in der sie heranwuchs. Eine Zeit in der DIY noch nicht chic, sondern notwendig war. Sie nimmt uns mit zu den Geburtsorten des Punk und schildert ihre arbeitsreiche Zeit mit ihrem Partner Malcolm McLaren.Whether you like fashion, punk, activism, or stories of perseverance and the strength of real people this is a fabulous book. Westwood sampled short-term poverty in the beginning of artistic ambition supported by family in fact, throughout her career she came up against financial loss, a lot to do with her baffling partnership. While this shaped her experience, I know she’s not silly to ignore widening inequality on her doorstep, she’s not. The quotidian survivalist having very little, and making do with Foodbanks, let alone a superficial likeness to wear island rape clothes. But I’m deliberate in that I’m so pleased the voiceless, the raped poor offer dramatic license allowing those living comfort to mimic those beaten by sexual violence. Vivienne Westwood covers everything from Westwood’s childhood, her motherhood (sons Ben Westwood & Joseph Corré), her intellectually stimulating and abusive ex-partner Malcolm McLaren (Joe’s father) with whom she shaped punk, her post-Malcolm years of launching her own brand, and her passion in political activism. I personally find it all very fascinating and informative about how Westwood shaped the world around her as well as how the world shaped her.

I've been a fan of Vivienne's fashion for some time and every time I saw a photo of her I just thought "This really looks like someone I need to know". I was not mistaken. Though this co-authored autobiography is as close as I can get to 'knowing' Vivienne the impact it's left on me is incredible. Some person said, Westwood’s book is an imperfect rant. And that’s OK. The biographer, Ian Kelly accused of plagiarism and recently, media pulled an out of context comment made by Westwood at Parliament, armed with a 60 million signed, anti-GMO petition. The message in a Derbyshire accent, encouraged the impoverished to eat less. She meant well. And on point wanting plenty production local, organic food to drive market prices down. Eat less, a comment encouraging those choosing harmful food to reconsider, forcing poison to disappear – eat less kale if you can afford it would’ve won the public over. Hysterics should’ve directed at those responsible for supplying the community dirt. But you can’t best intentions even a tireless campaigner’s heart will never revolution despair and hate. Toward the end where the main focus was on her activism, I love how Westwood said that everything costs less than it’s supposed to because the Earth is carrying that subsidy for us. (And yet it is also true that the current world economy does not allow us all to have the luxury of only purchasing sustainable items.)VIVIENNE WESTWOOD (Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE (* 8. April 1941-2022) englische Modeschöpferin, Queen of Punk

That being said I still give this book 4 stars. It means even more to me to have this following her death, and it makes you realise what a force she was in this world. She speaks truthfully and openly about her life and the journey she has been on from a girl living in the countryside to being in a marriage that didn’t feel right to her life with Malcolm and the Punk movement to her later working on her own and her eventual personal and professional partnership with Andreas to her activism on environmental and social causes. Venus with severed leg a portrait of Vivienne Westwood in 1975 by William English. Private view invitation for the show at the Aquarium Gallery, Monday18th October, 6.30-9.00pm. It baffles me that Kelly kept on deadnaming and misgendering Chelsea Manning, who came out publicly in 2013. Note that this book was published in 2014, and there was one sentence that mentioned her name, so Kelly wasn’t exactly clueless. This issue made me unable to give the book a rating.

Condition: guter Zustand. 1. Auflage. fester Einband ("Hardcover") 223 S., mit zahlreichen Farb- und Schwarzweißfotos, Fadenheftung Schutzumschlag minimal berieben, ein schönes Exemplar Sprache: ger/deu*. Du coup, plutôt que de me donner envie de lire autre chose pour en apprendre plus, ça m'a désintéressée du personnage.