Ten years ago I was sat blankly staring at a screen, agonizing over what I could write about for my dissertation. I knew I wanted to be a fashion journalist from the get-go, but for years, people had told me it was just a pipe dream. 'It's too competitive' they said. 'You won't be able to do that without speaking French.'
My sixth form teachers and parents had done everything in their powers to make sure I didn't study fashion journalism, and they succeeded. First I was convinced I'd need to study French - a 'proper subject' - though after a week of doing it I almost died of boredom. Determined not to quit university, I took the most creative course I could find - English and Drama. It wasn't exactly what I'd dreamed of, but it would do.
So when it came to my dissertation, I struggled to find something that was really 'me'. I didn't enjoy much fiction, I definitely had no interest in classic literature, nor did I have much inclination towards studying plays. I've always been a little anti-establishment in my attitude towards life, and conforming to the 'norm' has always bored me.
READ MORE: Vivienne Westwood dies at 81
Then it dawned on me. I could write a dissertation on the very women who had inspired my real passions - music and fashion. I already had a huge pile of fashion and books on punk music in my bedroom. I was absolutely enthralled by the way in which the likes of Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene and Viv Albertine had all played a role in changing the media's (and subsequently society's) perception of women in music and fashion.
But throughout this entire period, and in every single book I read and every documentary I watched about how women created a new type of voice and image in the 70s and 80s, one name was consistent. Vivienne Westwood.
When the news of her death broke yesterday, I cried. As a journalist, you learn to become quite hard-nosed when it comes to death, but some of them shroud you in a sadness you just can't avoid. It's easy to read the inpours of tributes and forget the person behind them, but each and every message I've seen about Viv is true.
She was a trailblazer, and she was an absolute maverick. She'd probably hate reading all of the tributes to herself - she hated all the fuss - but that's part of what made her the unique, ballsy and defiant woman that she was.
What many people don't realise, though, is that before Vivienne became a fashion mogul, and before she'd even opened her first shop, Let it Rock at number 430 Kings Road, Chelsea in London, the designer was a Northern girl, born and bred.
Viv's name is today synonymous with London and the Punk culture of the 1970s, but the start of her story, and her early inspirations, can be found hundreds of miles away in Glossop and Manchester.
Vivienne Isabel Swire was born at the Partington Maternity Home in Glossop on April 8th 1941. Many people don't know this as she's famous for her work in London, but she was a true Derbyshire girl. In her memoir, Viv said: 'I've never lost my accent'.
Daughter of a working class family, Vivienne had humble beginnings in Wartime Tintwistle. Her father Gordon Swire was employed as a storekeeper in an aircraft factory, and the family lived in wartime austerity. On 2 June 1953, along with her family, Vivienne had plans to attend street parties for the Queen's Coronation.
It was a washout, as rain shrouded the North West. Huddled around a television to watch the Westminster ceremony indoors, Viv was taken aback by the 'royalness' of the event. The Englishness and queenliness of the Coronation stuck in her mind from a young age, and you can see the motif running through her life's library of work.
Most notable are her 'God Save the Queen' T-shirts, her Harris Tweed and Anglomania collections, and of course, the iconic Orb, which runs through collections, and is still hugely popular on bags and jewellery pieces to this day.
At 12, Vivienne enrolled in Glossop Grammar School. Despite her working class upbringing, Vivienne was able to get a scholarship at the school, which is where she said 'everything shifted' for her. In her memoir, the fashion designer recalled an encounter history teacher Mr Scott.
She said: "I had to go into Manchester to buy shoes and I'd save money in case I saw something wonderful to buy. This one time I couldn't believe what I saw, something of which I could never of dreamed. Stilettos. [...] On Monday I took them to school and placed them on my desk for all to admire.
"I remember, I was in such a reverie that I didn't notice Mr Scott, my history teacher come in. I adored him. He saw these shoes, and I remember him saying 'Well, well, Vivienne Swire, if God had meant is to wear pins on our feet, he would have provided us with them.' I was in heaven."
In her last term at Glossop, Mr Scott, the passionately political history teacher, taught Vivienne his own proud liberalism in special classes he entitled 'Civics'. "We can only take democracy for granted if we insist on liberty" is a lesson she remembered for the rest of her life.
Vivienne went on to explain how there were little opportunities for women in education at the time. She said: "The advice about careers and prospects was of its time and place. Especially for us girls. [...] If I had stayed up North I would probably have gone on to sixth form because I loved school, absolutely loved it.
"But the point is there were only four jobs that we knew about. There was being a schoolteacher, a hairdresser, nurse, or more likely a secretary."
Another Glossop Grammar teacher who had influence on Vivienne's flair for fashion was the art teacher - Mr Bell. She described him as 'quite a dramatic presence' at the school. When she was 17, Vivienne was advised to visit an art gallery in Manchester by Mr Bell.
She said: "It changed my life, really. I'd never been to an art gallery before. I'd heard of painters, Michelangelo, but I thought they were in private collections or churches."
Vivienne says Mr Bell advised her to create a folder of her art work, and she did. He taught her 'not to be safe', and was the first person to note she had real skill when he spotted her doing a fashion sketch one day. Vivienne says Mr Bell was integral in giving her the courage to be the artist he knew she was.
In 1958, the family moved to Harrow, North London, where life would change entirely for Vivienne. The fashion designer's brother, Gordon, described the move as a 'dramatic turning point' for the family - who decided to buy a post office down South. He says nobody else in the entire extended family had ever dared to move out of the Tintwistle-Hollingworth area, and many are still there.
Vivienne didn't settle down easily into life as a Londoner. She said: "Truth is, there was this boy. And I liked him, and I liked it up there, near to Manchester. [....] He was called Jimmy Grant and he was a police cadet, and he lived quite a long way on the other side of Manchester at Chadderton."
Viv recalls Jimmy ruining his suit after insisting on walking back home after dropping her 20 miles away from his home in the rain after their first date. She said dating wasn't the same in London. Vivienne recalled: "What I first noticed when I came to London was that you had to plan to meet each other - you couldn't just turn up like you did in Manchester."
Following the move, and in an attempt to move on from Manchester and Jimmy, Vivienne decided to take her flair for fashion and design up a notch by enrolling onto a jewellery and silversmith course at the University of Westminster - then known as Harrow Art School. However, Vivienne's time on the course was short-lived, and she quit after one term, stating: "I didn't know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world".
Vivienne's mother was as proud as punch of her daughter's skill for design. One of the last memories Vivienne had of her mother, Dora, was in the hospital, when she was reaching the end of her life. The fashion designer recalled hearing her mother calling one of the nurses over and proudly exclaiming: "Do you know who this young lady is? This young lady - this is Vivienne Westwood, my daughter. She's a fashion designer you know."
Having quit her art course, Vivienne became a primary school teacher, and remained in that role until 1972. In 1962, Vivienne married Derek Westwood. The pair had a son, Benjamin, and stayed together until she met Malcolm McLaren - the then art student who would change her life forever.
In extracts from her memoir she wrote: "Malcolm chased me. I didn’t want him for my boyfriend." The point is, I didn’t want Malcolm at first, but I did, in fact, end up getting pregnant by him," she writes. "Even then, I didn’t really want him."
The pair had one child together, a son called Joseph Corre on November 30, 1967. Joe is a British businessman and activist, who is known for being the founder of Agent Provocateur.
The pair would go on to completely transform the fashion and music scene in London together. The duo worked together to successfully use fashion as means for political protest. Vivienne would take this passion for protest on into her later years, where she campaigned for human rights and famously against fracking in several highly publicised demonstrations.
Throughout the 70s, Westwood and McLaren would continue to regenerate their boutique, which was originally opened as 'Let It Rock' on the King's Road in Chelsea in 1971. The first Vivienne Westwood fashion show wouldn't happen until 1981, the year she split from Malcolm, when she presented her famous 'Pirates' collection.
Vivienne never stopped reiterating her work throughout the decades, and as a result, the styles she produced were constantly evolving. The fashion designer's work was never boring, and will be looked upon as inspiration by designers for years to come.
In 1988, Westwood found love once again with fellow designer Andreas Kronthaler while teaching at the Vienna School of Applied Art. She was his teacher, and he her student. Despite the 25 year age gap, the pair would remain together until her death on December 29, 2022.
Following news of her death, he wrote: "I will continue with Vivienne in my heart. We have been working until the end and she has given me plenty of things to get on with. Thank you darling."
Vivienne Westwood wasn't just a fashion designer. She was a bloody good fashion designer, but she was so much more. She was a businesswoman, she was a revolutionary, she was a mother, she was a teacher, she was an activist, she was an inspiration. But most of all, she was Vivienne. Never more, never less. Rest in peace Vivienne Westwood. We will never forget.
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