Vivienne and Andreas have helped me open up and explore ideas while also being unapologetic about my background. “Growing up in Pakistan, I wasn’t really aware of fashion, let alone the idea I could choose it as a career. Kate Moss, topless, licking a Magnum ice cream, wearing the shortest skirt ever, with 18th-century make-up. “My favourite show is Spring/Summer 1994, Café Society. Valuing the process of time serves both as a therapy and a protest against the voracious cycle of the fashion treadmill.” And Vivienne has helped me to recognise the importance of craftsmanship and sustainability. Attending fittings with Andreas taught me so much – he is unpredictable yet meticulous, a very good combination. When I was 16, I found the phone number for the Vivienne Westwood office and rang up, asking if I could come to the studio for a meeting about an internship.

“Vivienne is the first fashion designer I remember remembering. It’s so refreshing to see – I love unconventional men.” Meanwhile Andreas’s energy and spirit are out of this world. She’s an artist, yet has been able to last in this business without ever compromising who she is. When we talk about Vivienne, we talk about art, emotion, design – that’s what I’ve always loved about her. I can’t think of one time that she’s bent to the rules of the industry – even the word ‘industry’ can’t be associated with her. But Vivienne has helped destroy these stereotypes, the idea that certain clothes are only for certain genders and classes. When I first designed menswear, I used to come up against the limitations of what men’s clothes should be. Vivienne has taught me to truly believe in myself and to gain knowledge of how and where things are made. That is a great, great thing to do and why their work speaks to so many people world-wide. She doesn’t believe in conformity, and she and Andreas like to push the idea of what is acceptable. “Growing up I saw the world a bit differently, and I believe Vivienne did too. It’s like we are sending smoke signals to each other and sending ships across the sea, with good tidings.” I feel like I’m from the same planet as them and have my own little island on it. “There’s no denying that Vivienne and Andreas have paved the way for me and my work. Across these pages, pieces by Westwood and her former pupil Andreas Kronthaler – today her husband and the creative director of her top-line collection – are joined by a new group of designers whose garments echo her working methods and draw infinite inspiration from her.Ī new generation of fashion designers on how Vivienne Westwood inspires. Her latest is a pack of playing cards that lays out a strategy to save the world.

For more than a decade her focus has been to draw attention to the plight of the planet through her clothes, of course, and also powerful graphics that trace back to her work in the 1970s. Great teachers inspire: through her unparalleled creativity Westwood has tutored entire generations. It’s a mindset that has informed her work from the outset – occasionally, she still describes herself as a teacher, and has always created clothes that reflect that – to communicate a theory, to educate. This article is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue of AnOther Magazine: Before she began her career in fashion, half a century ago now, Vivienne Westwood trained as a primary school teacher.

Pompom magazine issue 23