Her radical designs first appeared in Let It Rock, the clothing shop she and then-partner Malcolm McLaren opened in 1970 in the Chelsea neighborhood of London.
Over the next decade, Westwood explored outrageous, provocative designs and clothed the denizens of London's evolving punk scene, including many of the bands, like the Sex Pistols, that defined the era. The shop's name changed several times during those years, but Westwood's bold fashion sense remained as she broadened the scope of her efforts.
Throughout her career, Westwood has used culturally traditional or even old-fashioned fabrics, such as tartan, tweed and lace, to express cutting-edge punk styles. She began designing shoes while working with McLaren in the 1970s in London’s burgeoning punk scene. After establishing her own label in 1980, Westwood continued to design footwear for her collections.
Vivienne Westwood Shoes
As her popularity grew, so did her outrageous sense of style, which sometimes caused calamity. The most infamous example occurred when supermodel Naomi Campbell stumbled and fell while modeling a pair of towering “super elevated gillie” platforms with 9-inch heels and 4-inch platforms from Westwood’s 1993 fall-winter Anglomania collection. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum acquired the infamous pair of shoes for a 2004 retrospective on Westwood’s career. A similar pair can be found at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.Vivienne Westwood shoes can be easily spotted from afar. Look for towering heels and curving platforms in bold shapes with traditional fabrics used in surprising ways, or outlandish reinterpretations of classic silhouettes. Westwood's shoes often bear multiple bows, buckles, ties, laces and other decorative touches, often in unexpected places or combinations. She regularly uses unusual colors and fabrics or exaggerated shapes to liven up a shoe's design.
Buying Vivienne Westwood Shoes
Westwood's shoes aren't sold in the United States, but if you decide to pick up a pair in Europe or Asia, expect to pay between $500 and $750, with boots on the higher end of the scale. Westwood lent her talents to the Nine West shoe brand for a limited-edition fall 2006 collection, giving U.S. fans a chance to snap up her characteristically daring styles for a relative bargain, with prices from about $250 for pumps and sandals to $500 for boots.Not ready to shell out hundreds of dollars for your own pair of Westwoods? Pick up "Vivienne Westwood: Shoes," (compare prices) a coffee table book from Damiani with photos of 140 memorable pairs, to tide yourself over.
