Punk-Inspired Fashions...

As I mentioned in my last post, this year's Costume Institute Gala was punk-themed.  The exhibit is Punk : Chaos to Couture, and in honor of this I thought that today we could celebrate the punk-inspired work of the amazing Vivienne Westwood.  Westwood's name is synonimous with punk, and she was one of the key people who had a great influence in the punk movement.

Dame Vivienne Westwood's popularity knows no bounds.  Her punk attitude is more alive now than in the movement's seventies heyday and her outspoken, Union Jack waving Englishness (with a few added safety pins and tea stains!), is undiminished.  Cutting edge but classic, her collections are unflinchingly rooted in her interests and beliefs, whether it is human rights or classical fiction.

She began designing clothes in 1971 with the opening of her first shop, Let It Rock, in the King's Road.  In 1974 it was renamed Sex.  In 1976, with her then lover and business partner, Malcolm McLaren, they dressed the Sex Pistols.

Like it or hate it, punk had a big influence on fashion in the seventies and beyond, and Westwood's designs were as important as the punk movement itself.  Here are some of her unforgettable designs throughout the years....