Fashion legend Vivienne Westwood passed away from natural causes in Clapham, London, England on Thursday, Dec. 29, at age 81.
Her fashion house said she died “peacefully” and surrounded by family.”
Westwood was best known as the “queen of punk style” and for popularizing vagabond fashion on the runway.
“She was always trying to reinvent fashion,” said Andrew Bolton, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Westwood was a primary school teacher before she opened her first clothing store in South London, which she named Let It Rock. She later renamed the boutique Sex.
She eventually brought her British punk rock fashion to mainstream America and the world.
Celebrities who were influenced by her designs took to social media to pay tribute to Westwood.
Actress Kerry Washington was inspired by Westwood’s edgy style.
“I always felt like a goddess when wearing art designed by the goddess that is #VivienneWestwood. Heaven just became a bit more snatched and fabulous. Rest in Peace,” she tweeted.
I always felt like a goddess when wearing art designed by the goddess that is #VivienneWestwood. Heaven just became a bit more snatched and fabulous. Rest in Peace ?? pic.twitter.com/7IECf2AL13
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) December 30, 2022
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis remembered Westwood with three Instagram posts. She recalled her ex-boyfriend, British singer Adam Ant, gifting her a “massive box of clothing” from Westwood’s clothing line.
“I was raised in a very conservative household, my stepfather was a Marine and my mother, a good girl and this box of clothes that looked like a pirate would wear them delighted and terrified me,” Curtis wrote.
“It was avant-garde and punk and dangerous and rebellious, not one of those words that you would apply to me and yet I gamely tried to wear them,” she continued.
Supermodel Victoria Beckham was saddened to learn of Westwood’s passing.
“I’m so sad to learn of the passing of legendary designer and activist Dame Vivienne Westwood. My thoughts are with her family at this incredibly sad time. VB,” she wrote on Instagram.
Julian Assange‘s wife, Stella Morris, told Good Morning Britain that Westwood designed her wedding gown for their marriage in Belmarsh Prison last year.
She said Westwood had campaigned for his freedom. Assange is still imprisoned after he was arrested in 2019 and dragged out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he had taken refuge in 2012. He fathered two sons with Morris between 2017 and 2019.
Model Claudia Schiffer referred to Westwood as a “genius”, whose “unique voice will be irreplaceable and will be missed.”
Westwood leaves behind her husband, Andreas Kronthaler, and her two sons, Ben Westwood, 59, and Joseph Corré, 55, from previous relationships.
29th December 2022.
Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London.
The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better. pic.twitter.com/YQwVixYUrV
— Vivienne Westwood (@FollowWestwood) December 29, 2022