Vivienne Westwood

Describes motivation process for creativity with emphasis on intrinsic motivation by Corey K Katir

Filed under: Apparel, Celebrity Design

Vivienne Westwood is a busy Dame. Dame Vivienne, that is. The iconic London-based fashion designer is one of the rare few who shows her collections in various cities, including Milan, London and Paris. When Luxist had the opportunity to experience her work up-close on Sunday evening when she unveiled her Red Label Fall/Winter 2011 collection, it was on the third day of London Fashion Week. Earlier that day, her Austrian-born husband, Andreas Kronthaler, Vivienne Westwood’s Creative Director, noted, they did a fitting with Helena Bonham Carter for the Academy Awards. A busy day, indeed.

Vivienne West’s show was larger than life (see video below). It was presented at the grand Royal Courts of Justice at London’s Strand, a gothic cathedral-like setting that was befitting for a designer of Dame Vivienne’s stature. The inspiration behind her “Red Label” collection show was Lewis Carroll’s “Alice through the looking glass” which evoked a feeling of British society and change. Models wore tartan prints, dresses with mis-matched seams, fantastic oversized hats (designed by Prudence Millinery, some were crowns), over-the-top makeup (including gold-painted faces) and hair styles that seemed to defy gravity. A video of the entire show can be seen on Vivienne Westwood’s website.

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Filed under: Jewelry
Mad Men co-star Christina Hendricks is hailed by some as a new modern ideal of Hollywood glamour–full figured, voluptuous; a throwback to the days of Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell a and Veronica Lake.

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‘I don’t think I would have been the singer that I am today if it hadn’t been for him,’ said Bow Wow Wow lead singer Annabella Lwin.
By Gil Kaufman

Musical bomb-thrower, cultural rabble-rouser, fashion icon, ultimate hype man. A day after the death of former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren from cancer at the age of 64, tributes poured in for the irrepressible self-promoter who many consider the godfather of punk rock.

McLaren had been suffering from cancer ‘for some time,’ his spokesperson said.
By James Montgomery

Malcolm McLaren, the manager of infamous punk act the Sex Pistols and the man for which the term “music impresario” was probably coined, died Thursday (April in New York. He was 64.

McLaren was born in London in 1946 and left home as a teenager, attending several art colleges (all of which he was expelled from) and taking up with the so-called “Situationist” movement, which favored absurd public demonstrations as a way of enacting social change. In 1971, he and designer (and partner) Vivienne Westwood opened a London clothing shop called Let It Rock, which would become the go-to outfitter for acts in the burgeoning punk scene on both sides of the Atlantic, starting with the New York Dolls, whom McLaren met in 1972.

In 1975, he had begun to manage a London act called the Strand, who become the Sex Pistols after McLaren and his assistant spotted a snarling punk named John Lydon and made him audition for the group. Lydon was rechristened “Johnny Rotten,” and with him fronting the group, the Pistols began an assault on London’s art-school scene. With McLaren at the helm, the Pistols’ legend began to grow, reaching its pinnacle in 1977, when, during the Queen of England’s Silver Jubilee, they released their incendiary second single “God Save the Queen.”

The song was regarded by many in the British public as an assault on both Queen Elizabeth II (mostly because it equated her to the head of a “fascist regime”) and the monarchy itself, because, as Rotten sneered, England had “no future.” In May of ’77, McLaren organized a boat trip down the Thames River, where the Pistols would perform the song outside the Houses of Parliament. The boat was raided by police, and McLaren was arrested, though he did succeed in his main goal: achieving massive amounts of publicity for both himself and his fledgling group.

Riding that wave, the Pistols released their (only) album, Never Mind the Bullocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, in October 1977 and geared up for an American tour in January 1978. They would implode after only 12 days in the States, splitting after a disastrous San Francisco gig. McLaren was accused by bandmembers (mostly Lydon) of not only mismanaging them, but refusing to pay them. The two would battle it out in court during the 1980s, with Lydon winning the rights to the entire Pistols catalog in 1987. The two men never spoke to each other again.

McLaren also released albums of his own, most notably 1983′s Duck Rock, which saw him incorporate influences like pan-African rhythms, early hip-hop and even country. One of the singles from the album, “Buffalo Gals,” showcased scratching and a square-dance cadence, and the opening lines were even referenced by Eminem in his 2002 single “Without Me.” He continued to release albums well into the 2000s and branched out into painting, radio presenting and even the movie business, serving as a producer on the film adaptation of “Fast Food Nation.”

McLaren’s spokesperson told London’s The Daily Mail that he had been suffering from cancer for “some time … but recently had been full of health, which then rapidly deteriorated” and that his body would be brought back to London for burial in Highgate Cemetary.Related Artists

• The Sex Pistols

Singer also contributed to British fashion retrospective at New York museum.
By James Montgomery

You’ve got to hand it to Sex Pistols frontman/agitator John Lydon: The guy’s persistent.

It’s been more than a month since he and the rest of Pistols failed to show up for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — as they had promised (see “Sex Pistols Respond To Rock Hall Invite With Filth And Fury”) — yet in a lengthy interview posted on his official site, JohnLydon.com, he continued to hammer away at the hall.

But this time, he wasn’t railing against the institution’s corporate ties nor its stuffy selection process — but rather, it was the evening’s official “Guide Book,” which is filled with such hyperbole as “The Sex Pistols played the industry, and the industry played them right back” and stated that the band’s agit-anthem “God Save the Queen” “reached #1 in the U.K.” (It only sort of did: The tune claimed the top spot on the New Musical Express‘ chart, yet only reached #2 on the official chart.)

“We tried to work with these people [at the hall of fame], we did make a concerted effort to get things right, but they consistently couldn’t be bothered. But they can be bothered — and do go out of their way — to employ people who have no real grasp of reality,” Lydon said. “We have re-educated the Halls of Shame many a time, and they’ve ignored the lot, and they’re still employing naff journalists. It’s exactly what I expected, which is why in all honesty I couldn’t recommend anyone going to that hall, or having anything to do with them.”

But Lydon wasn’t all filth and fury in the interview — which identifies no interviewer and is billed “The JohnLydon.com interview.” He took time out to profess his admiration for England’s Arsenal football club and spoke of the possibilities of yet another Sex Pistols reunion. But this time around, he’s not thinking about a tour (the Pistols toured in 1996 and 2003 and have played various scattered dates), but rather a one-off special on Japanese TV.

“Well, we got an offer [to re-form], but it was no good,” Lydon said. “It was for a whole bunch of gigs. But what I wanted to do … was to just do one big gig in Japan. My original idea was I wanted to do it on the day of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [induction ceremony], but that was a bit childish on my part.

“I’d like to do one gig in Japan, live TV, and not bother with a whole tour because there’s no need for it. And I’ve got too many other things to do. All of us have other work obligations now,” he continued. “We would do a gig for fun … it would be a possibility if it’s for TV broadcast. Then it’s special. It would be like a thank you present. Any other way, no. Not particularly interested, certainly not going to go out touring.”

Lydon also spoke about his involvement in an upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, called “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion” (which runs from May 3 until September 4). The show focuses on the groundbreaking British fashions of the past 30 years, beginning with the tattered jumpers and bondage pants sold by punk profiteers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at Sex, the London boutique they ran in the late ’70s.

A spokesperson for the Met confirmed that Lydon will be recording a podcast for the exhibit, which will be put up for free download on the Met’s Web site (MetMuseum.org) as well as on iTunes. The podcast — in which Lydon talks about the historical context of “God Save the Queen” and punk fashion in general — will also be available on the museum’s headphone systems, so visitors to the exhibit will be able to hear his take on the whole thing … which, in a manner seemingly unbecoming of the punk provocateur, seems to be unusually positive.

“They want me to explain exactly what the lyrics of ‘God Save the Queen’ were about. Which is a good opportunity to actually get something right. They came to us, so I have a sense of responsibility towards that. It sounds very good, sounds like a huge laugh,” Lydon said. “I’m gonna loan them my original design — which was made by Vivienne — of the tartan jacket which I wore on the first American tour. The bondage pants fell apart years ago, they rotted actually. Quite literally rotted, but the jacket — moth holes and all — is still in existence. I love that tartan. I’ve never been able to get the tartan to do it again.”Related Artists

• The Sex Pistols

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