| |
The Early Years
|
Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in Glossopdale, Derbyshire, on 8 April 1941. Her mother had been a weaver in the local cotton mills and her father came from a family of shoemakers. After the war, they ran a sub-post office in Tintwistle and in the late 1950s moved to north-west London.
Leaving grammar school at 16, Vivienne briefly attended Harrow Art College. She studied fashion and silversmithing, but left after a term because I didn’t know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world. She worked in a factory and trained to become a primary school teacher. In 1962 she married Derek Westwood and in 1963 her first son, Benjamin, was born.
Vivienne always enjoyed cutting a dash. As a teenager in the 1950s, she customised her school uniform to emulate the fashionable pencil skirt and made many of her own clothes, including a long, fitted New Look dress. She made sleeveless shifts, with a single seam and darts, from exactly one yard of fabric.
|
| |
|
