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Let It Rock
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Vivienne Westwood met Malcolm McLaren in 1965, and their son Joseph Ferdin Corré was born the following year. Their working relationship, which lasted from 1970 until 1983, launched Punk. Vivienne recalled, I felt there were so many doors to open, and he had the key to all of them. Plus, he had a political attitude and I needed to align myself.
McLaren was born in 1946 in Stoke Newington, where his family had a successful clothing company. He attended art school between 1964 and 1971 and enjoyed the idea of using culture as a way of making trouble. He was obsessed by fashion and music and saw them as an inseparable part of a rock’n’roll outlaw spirit. Rejecting the dominant hippie look, he wore brothel creeper shoes and drape coats.
In 1971, McLaren opened a shop called Let It Rock at 430 King’s Road. He sold vintage and repro Teddy Boy clothes, as well as garments made by Vivienne. Tiring of this, he then changed the name to Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die and sold customised biker gear. Over the next decade the shop underwent further changes of identity, each accompanied by a stylistic makeover by McLaren.
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Doll jumper and shorts
by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood
Let It Rock, 1971
Jumper: mohair, with marabou trim, plastic pin-up inserts
Shorts: wool
Shoes: leather
Stockings: synthetic
Lent by Vivienne Westwood
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Left:
Leather skirt and Venus T-shirt
by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood
Let It Rock, 1971
Working from their kitchen table, McLaren and Westwood created an extraordinary series of T-shirts inspired by the bikers' anti-fashion This one incorporates a Harley-Davidson cloth badge and a Brands Hatch brooch, along with sections of bicycle tyre and VENUS spelled out in large silver studs.
Skirt: leather, with mock croc, chains, zips, fringing,
BSA cloth label and metal studs
T-shirt: cotton, with rubber (Dunlop Junior tyres),
horsehair, metal zips, studs and chains
Shoes: leather
Stockings: rubber
Worn by Vivienne Westwood
Lent by Murray Blewett
Right:
Doll jumper and shorts as above
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