Vivienne Westwood, the provocative British vogue designer who endured for much more than half a century as a style icon and environmental activist, supporting dress the 1970s punk motion in advance of dressing supermodels on the runways of Paris and Milan, died Dec. 29 in the Clapham area of southwest London. She was 81.

Her demise was introduced by her namesake fashion residence, which did not cite a result in.

Ms. Westwood grew from an enfant horrible into a grand dame of the manner planet, bursting on to the London scene in the 1970s when she helped dress punk rockers like the Intercourse Pistols with leather-based jackets, ripped shirts and security pins. She later moved into couture style, producing outfits that ended up exhibited in museums all-around the world, though experimenting with flamboyant pirate shirts and petticoats, tweed corsets and pinstripe tailoring.

During her vocation she connected manner to politics, leveraging her fame to boost environmental results in, nuclear disarmament, vegetarianism and efforts to battle weather change. She emblazoned her shirts, jackets and dresses with activist slogans — “Politicians R Criminals” and “We are not disposable” — and urged her audience to invest in a lot less, not much more, unveiling a unisex line in 2017 with the hopes that guys and girls could share the identical dresses, including capes and tutus.

“Unisex may possibly audio like a joke, but, in reality, it’s all about styling and being equipped to costume even so you like,” she explained to the New York Moments that 12 months at a London Trend Week celebration. “Swapping outfits with your spouse suggests you can get much less, pick properly and definitely make them very last.”

Ms. Westwood was initially known for presiding more than a boutique on London’s King’s Street with Malcolm McLaren, who became the manager of the Intercourse Pistols. “I was messianic about punk,” she later on recalled, “seeing if one particular could put a spoke in the method in some way.”

She preserved that anarchic sensibility very long just after she was embraced by the establishment, posing for the protect of Tatler magazine in 1989 in an Aquascutum accommodate that she explained was intended for Primary Minister Margaret Thatcher. 3 several years later, when Queen Elizabeth II awarded her the Purchase of the British Empire, Ms. Westwood — who was later on named a Dame Commander — stunned photographers by twirling to exhibit off her outfit, a customized skirt go well with that she wore with sheer tights but no underwear.

“I have an in-constructed perversity,” she reported in an job interview for the e book “England’s Dreaming” by Jon Savage, “a sort of in-designed clock which reacts against something orthodox.”

Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in Glossop, an English town east of Manchester, on April 8, 1941. Her mother, a seamstress who designed her own outfits, favored standard fare for her three small children Ms. Westwood reported that she began to dabble in fashion when her mother authorized her to pick out her very own outfits. She chosen a limited skirt and heels.

Ms. Westwood briefly attended Harrow Art University and then went to a teacher’s coaching higher education, landing a task as a schoolteacher. Her marriage to Derek Westwood, a dance corridor supervisor, ended in divorce, and in the mid-1960s she started a partnership with McLaren, with whom she collaborated as a designer.

Jointly they riffed on the trim-tie, gelled-hair style model of the 1950s “teddy boys,” whilst also drawing on biker tradition and sadomasochistic imagery. Less than the slogan “Clothes for Heroes,” they built leather-based-and-zipper attire and “bondage” shirts with sleeves that wrapped about like a straitjacket. 1 T-shirt confirmed Queen Elizabeth II with a security pin piercing her lip.

Their shop cycled through various names, such as Too Young to Die and Also Fast to Live, but the a single that most caught the public’s focus was Sex. The title appeared in bloated pink letters earlier mentioned the door.

In 1981, they launched their 1st runway collection: gender-neutral garments that evoked pirate imagery and 19th-century style. The model became part of the write-up-punk New Wave scene after it was adopted by pop stars Adam Ant and Boy George.

Ms. Westwood soon dissolved her partnership with McLaren, and went on to produce designs together with the mini-crini, a shortened model of the Victorian crinoline, and a lightweight corset created to be worn on the outdoors of an outfit, which aided spark a ’90s development toward underwear as outerwear. In modern a long time, she used her identify for an increasing array of retail partnerships, which includes teas sets, hats, jewelry and fragrances.

She opened her 1st U.S. boutique in Los Angeles in 2011.

Survivors involve her husband of 30 many years, Austrian designer Andreas Kronthaler a son from her first relationship, erotic photographer Ben Westwood and a son with McLaren, Joseph Corré, who co-started the lingerie brand name Agent Provocateur. More facts on survivors ended up not straight away readily available.

In 2008, a Westwood marriage ceremony gown became a centerpiece of the “Sex and the City” movie when Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, decides against a Vera Wang costume in favor of Ms. Westwood’s billowy silk-and-taffeta. Ms. Westwood was unimpressed with the rest of the clothes showcased in the movie, afterwards indicating: “I went to the premiere and left after 10 minutes.”

When it came to her individual picture, she normally opted for fairly uncomplicated outfits to go with her exclusive dazzling-orange hair. “My manner tips,” she explained to the Times in 2009, “is to have a flattering mirror at home and then ignore about it.”

By Amalia