As 2017 bids a fond adieu and 2018 hastily squeals into sight, it’s important to keep ourselves focused on good things to come. January and February could easily be described as the dreariest months of the year, so we were all excited at to find out that a spanking new Vivienne Westwood documentary would be arriving on our screens come March.
Featuring intimate conversations with her closest friends, collaborators and family members including her son, Joseph Corré, the first feature-length production about the designer – Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist – is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Lorna Tucker. (Tucker herself has a poignant story of her own: once homeless as a teen, she was spotted begging on the streets of Charing Cross by a modelling agency that scrambled to sign her. She then went on to form successful careers in both fashion and documentary-making.)
Dame Vivienne, now 77 and undeniably as fabulous as ever, has been famously disrupting fashion for over forty years. Rising to prominence in the 70s, the Queen of Punk made a name for herself dressing the Sex Pistols in garb from her legendary boutique, SEX.
The film will also explore the relationship between the fiery-maned icon and her then partner in love and business, Malcolm McLaren. Mapping out the designer’s creative inspiration throughout her enduring career, we don’t know too many of the fine details, but it promises to delve into her personal life as well as her intertwining paths as both a designer and activist.
Amongst the list of stunts performed in the name of good will is a naked shower campaign for PETA; sending a box of asbestos to Downing Street to protest fracking; her Climate Revolution campaign launched at the London Paralympics closing ceremony; an Ethical Fashion Africa campaign through the streets of Nairobi; and most recently the creation of a shirt for War Child UK, which aims to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Still just as riotous, relevant and respected in the fashion world today, Vivienne continues to design alongside her husband and label partner, Andreas Kronthaler.
Ahead of the UK-wide release on March 23rd, the documentary will be screened on January 20th at the Sundance Film Festival, in the ‘World Cinema Documentary Competition’. The distribution company behind the film, Dogwoof, is responsible for other notable fashion documentaries including Dries and Dior & I.
In the meantime, we suggest you don your snuggest Anglomania knits, possibly a dash of tartan, and knuckle down till spring.
Written by Thea Carley
