MAPPING - Design Creative Process - Vivienne Westwood

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD – ‘her thought processes complex and multi-layered’

Vivienne Westwood is a famous fashion designer, known for her punk and unique style of clothing which is always on trend and edgy, even if they aren’t appealing or realistic to the average buyer or popular culture. Generally in her designs and final pieces which would are made from high quality fabrics and materials, mostly with bold colourful designs.

As with most fashion designers, the creative process deigns with a topic of inspiration which sparks their initial ideas, Westwood’s was usually punk or politics related, as shown by her bold, striking and rebellious designs. From this spark, drawing of the dominant stages of the initial process, as seen in these photos, drawings tend to be free flowing and full of creativity to show all ideas and create the base of the form of the product. However it is clear from these images that the initial design drawings and the final garment is rarely identical. This is a result of the middle stage which is where Westwood experiments which different typos of fabric, what ideas would fit well together on the body and what shapes and parts of the design will be realistically able to be made, therefore considering the ideas of form and function. Here these ideas are developed through smaller samples and then finally life-size trials, until the piece is perfect.

‘She attended Glossop Grammar School. In 1958, her family moved to Harrow, London. She studied silver-smithing at Harrow School of Art,[5] but left after one term, saying later, "I didn't know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world".[6] After taking up a job in a factory and studying at a teacher-training college, she became a primary school teacher. During this period, she created her own jewellery, which she sold at a stall on Portobello Road.[3] While she continued teaching and simultaneously making jewellery, this led to her discovering design when she met Malcom McLaren who became a major inspiration to her designs in Punk Fashion.[7]’

As of the general nature of fashion designers documentation, Westwood documents her work by making numerous copies and selling her clothing to be worn by the general public, however usually worn by the upper class sections of society as a result of the high price point. She also documents her work through runways, from them creating videos and photos of the final pieces.