“Shoes must have very high heels to put a woman’s beauty on a pedestal.” Vivienne Westwood is unequalled for developing shoes with ingenious style and with a more than audacious instep. These shoes-cum-works of art have established themselves as collector’s pieces since the 80s. But the legend of Vivienne Westwood began 10 years earlier. In the 70s, a young punk girl, alongside her husband, opened her first boutique at 430 King’s Road in London. This woman was Vivienne Westwood, and the man that accompanied her was none other than Malcolm McLaren, manager of bands like the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols. In this boutique they sold records, souvenirs, and created clothing inspired by the 50s. The boutique was named SEX’ and, sure enough, band members would soon flock to it, largely contributing to the development of its renown.
It was with her 1981 collection that Vivienne Westwood truly imposed her style and her label. Dubbed ‘Pirate’, the collection was woven around a fantasy composed entirely of swashbuckling clothes, fit for a bandit, built on the myth of dandies, buccaneers, and other pirates. Among these pieces, each more grandiloquent than the next, one particularly attracted attention: the timeless Pirate Boots. Hand-made in London since 1981, and brought back out each season ever since, they are the incarnation and the height of laid-back cool. A flexible upper gives it a totally soft and nonchalant side. Since the leather is untreated, it turns a warm color over time. The more they’re taken for a spin, the prettier they get! A prolific designer of shoes with a fetish for style, Westwood confesses that her work is often fun in itself. “The shoes are sexy. I mean that everything has to be sexy. That’s the goal for my work. I want my ideas to enter fashion.” How could anyone forget the monumental Super elevated gillies that Naomi Campbell first tottered around in in 1993 while walking down the VW catwalk? Since become essential objects in the contemporary world, Vivienne Westwood’s shoes are undeniably the icons of “Made in England” fashion.
Leave a Reply