Dame Vivienne Westwood

1 portrait of Dame Vivienne Westwood

Angus McBean Photograph. © Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University.

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Dame Vivienne Westwood

by Angus McBean
chromogenic print, 1988
12 5/8 in. x 9 7/8 in. (322 mm x 252 mm) overall
Given by David Ball, 2007
Photographs Collection
NPG x128899

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits, Sitter in 79 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Pepper, Terence, Angus McBean Portraits, 2006 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 July to 22 October 2006), p. 111 Read entry

    McBean’s last major portrait commission for the American Details magazine was a portfolio of six portraits taken in three capital cities. Vivienne Westwood and Neville Brody, graphic designer and founder of The Face magazine, represented London. Westwood is shown here wearing her characteristic royalty-inspired couture, part of the series of five collections later to be known by the generic title Britain Must Go Pagan. Westwood is a self-taught fashion designer who originally trained as a teacher. In 1965 she met Malcolm McLaren, with whom she had a working relationship from 1970 to 1983. They opened their first shop in the King's Road, London, in 1970, where they produced punk fashion. The partnership ended as McLaren became more involved in music while Westwood's fashion career burgeoned in ever-increasing success. In 1990 and 1991 she was named Designer of the Year. In 2004 her career in fashion was marked by a major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She was appointed Dame in 2006.

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1988back to top

Current affairs

A Pan Am jumbo jet is brought down by a bomb over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground. The Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary launched Britain's largest criminal investigation before convicting a Libyan intelligence officer of planting the bomb.

Art and science

Professor Stephen Hawking publishes his popular book on cosmology, A Brief History Of Time.
Damien Hirst and his fellow Goldsmiths students organise the exhibition Freeze in a disused block in the Docklands. The exhibition launched the careers of many of the young British artists (YBAs) associated with Brit Art including Gary Hume, Michael Landy, Sarah Lucas, Angus Fairhurst, and Anya Gallaccio.

International

Iraq drops poison gas on the Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja, killing thousands of civilians. The city was held at the time by Iranian forces and Iraqi Kurdish rebels, although there was initially some debate over which side was responsible for the atrocity. It was the largest-scale chemical attack on civilians in modern times.

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