Vogue designer Vivienne Westwood lifeless at 81

British designer Vivienne Westwood, recognised as fashion’s “high priestess of punk,” died on Thursday, December 29 at the age of 81.

Westwood’s namesake trend home tweeted that she passed away “peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London.”

The brand also shared the unfortunate news on Instagram, writing, “Vivienne ongoing to do the matters she beloved, up right up until the last second, planning, performing on her art, composing her e-book, and shifting the planet for the much better. She led an remarkable existence. Her innovation and affect in excess of the past 60 yrs has been immense and will continue into the potential.”

Westwood’s many years-lengthy design vocation began in the 1970s — shortly following she achieved Malcom McLaren, who would go on to regulate the Sexual intercourse Pistols. Jointly, Westwood and McLaren opened their famed Intercourse boutique on King’s Highway in London, which sold provocative fetish-encouraged fashions befitting its name (of which it’d cycle by many over the yrs).

“It modified the way men and women looked. I was messianic about punk, seeing if one particular could place a spoke in the process in some way. I recognized there was no subversion without the need of tips. It’s not enough to want to damage all the things,” Westwood at the time reported of her operate.

She and McLaren began demonstrating their personal collections in the early 1980s, mixing the edgy punk references they realized and cherished with aspects of new romanticism her now-signature corsets and the “mini-crini,” a small and attractive variation of the Victorian crinoline, exemplified this aesthetic.

And Westwood’s conduct was as subversive as her design in 1992, she arrived at Buckingham Palace to receive an an Order of the British Empire (OBE) from the Queen, twirled for the cameras — and disclosed she was going commando beneath her seemingly conservative skirt accommodate.

While definitely eye-catching, Westwood’s creations — which have ranged from T-shirts printed with naked breasts to pirate hats — have once in a while sacrificed practicality for impression. For the duration of her iconic 1993 “Anglomania” demonstrate, she sent out styles donning platform heels so perilously significant, Naomi Campbell famously took a tumble appropriate on the runway.

In far more recent years, Westwood’s draped and corseted styles have grow to be favorites of superstars which include Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa, Hailey Baldwin and Olivia Rodrigo, to title but a several.

When Dita Von Teese married Marilyn Manson in 2006, she did so dressed in purple Westwood Princess Eugenie donned a few unique appears to be like by the designer for Kate Middleton and Prince William’s royal marriage ceremony in 2011.

A Vivienne Westwood marriage ceremony costume was famously showcased in the 2008 “Sex and the City” motion picture, with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw choosing a voluminous strapless robe by the designer for her wedding day to Chris Noth’s Mr. Major — and even though not all viewers liked the bridal design and style, most likely that was the issue.

“The only reason I am in vogue is to wipe out the phrase ‘conformity’,” the flame-haired designer wrote in her 2014 biography. “Nothing is attention-grabbing to me except if it’s acquired that element.”