Hollywood stars are remembering fashion designer, activist and businesswoman Vivienne Westwood after she died on Thursday at the age of 81.
Westwood’s eponymous fashion house announced her death on social media platforms, saying she died peacefully. A cause was not disclosed.
“Vivienne continued to do the things she loved, up until the last moment, designing, working on her art, writing her book, and changing the world for the better. She led an amazing life,” the announcement read. “Her innovation and impact over the last 60 years has been immense and will continue into the future. The world needs people like Vivienne to make a change for the better.”
Celebrity reactions to Westwood’s death have been pouring in since the announcement was made about the influential fashion maverick who played a key role in the punk movement.
Hollywood is mourning the loss of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood after she passed away on Thursday in her home in London.
(Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)
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Victoria Beckham took to her Instagram story to pay tribute to Westwood, posting a picture of the designer and writing: “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.”
Jamie Lee Curtis recalled how meeting Westwood and seeing her designs for the first time led her to change her opinion of fashion.
“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. 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,” Curtis wrote on Instagram. “Years later, my hairdresser, @seanjameshair re-introduced me to the love of Westwood and I’ve been able to watch her magic through him for all of these years. Boy, do I wish I had those clothes today. A true icon. A talented dame.”
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer wrote on Instagram story, “the genius of @viviennewestwood, her unique voice will be irreplaceable and will be missed,” alongside a picture of the two of them together.
Singer Boy George tweeted: “R.I.P to the great and inspiring Vivienne Westwood who lead us through punk and beyond. Laughed at by the fashion industry but without question she is the undisputed Queen of British fashion. I love you! Oh bondage up yours!”
Boy George called Westwood the “undisputed Queen of British fashion.”
(Photo by Ki Price/Getty Images)
Billy Idol tweeted, “RIP it will take me a bit to take this in…”
“Sex and the City” alum Kim Cattrall called Westwood “a true genius who never lost her northern grit,” and shared a story about the time she turned to Westwood when she arrived in London and needed a dress for an event in two days time. She remembered Westwood’s “generosity and kindness in making that happen and saving the day.”
Rose McGowan tweeted: “Deeply saddened by a true punk’s passing, Vivienne Westwood, what a hellraiser, what a talent,” alongside photos of her walking the runway in one of Westwood’s designs.
Westwood’s longtime friend and hairstylist Sam McKnight posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram, writing: “rest in Peace dear Vivienne. How lucky I am to have spun around in that magical orbit of your world. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You’re a true original, a trailblazer, a taboo-smasher and an ICON for generations. In a world of cookie-cutter mediocrity, BE MORE VIV!”
Lisa Rinna’s daughter and model Amelia Hamlin thanked Westwood for giving her the opportunity to walk in her “first show ever in Paris,” saying the designer was one of the reasons she wanted to pursue a career on the runway to begin with.
“The elegance, the punk, the freedom, the authenticity. I have never felt more empowered in my life. I have so much more to say but I can’t find my words… so, for now.. THANK YOU.”
Model Karen Elson wrote: “This is terribly sad news. Rest In Peace Dame Vivienne Westwood. She was a reckoner who pushed the needle of British Fashion and continued in that fearless original spirit her entire career.”
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“She tore apart notions of femininity, sex, and was one of the first to demand that fashion do better in regards to the climate and without a doubt was one of the most effortlessly original people I’ve ever met,” Elson continued. “Fashion, art, culture will mourn this loss of a gargantuan woman who shaped how we wear and what we wore.”
Westwood’s fashion career began in the 1970s when her radical approach to urban street style took the world by storm. But she went on to enjoy a long career highlighted by a string of triumphant runway shows and museum exhibitions.
The name Westwood became synonymous with style and attitude even as she shifted focus from year to year, her range vast and her work never predictable.
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As her stature grew, she seemed to transcend fashion. The young woman who had scorned the British establishment eventually became one of its leading lights, even as she kept her hair dyed that trademark bright shade of orange.
Andrew Bolton, curator of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, said Westwood and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren — her onetime partners — “gave the punk movement a look, a style, and it was so radical it broke from anything in the past.”
“The ripped shirts, the safety pins, the provocative slogans,” Bolton said. “She introduced postmodernism. It was so influential from the mid-70s. The punk movement has never dissipated — it’s become part of our fashion vocabulary. It’s mainstream now.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
