British designer vivienne westwood' s store sex (stylized as sex) was the hub of punk fashion throughout the ' 70s, supplying the tangible pieces to craft a look and the intangible element of shock and controversy that punks wished to emulate. Vivienne westwood helped develop punk as a style, an ethos and a movement in the 1970s when she outfitted the sex pistols and inspired british youth to rebel Led by vivienne westwood and malcolm mclaren, the sex pistols helped create a fashion movement that lives on to this day. It has become an iconic representation of early british punk style. The collapse of the sex pistols and the adoption of punk by the mainstream left vivienne disenchanted In 1980 the shop was refitted and renamed worlds end, which is still the name that's in use today
The shop's basement was formerly a restaurant, but worlds end eventually absorbed it to expand the stockroom and staff facilities. The sex pistols needed a manager to guide them and mclaren and westwood needed an outlet for their ideas, both fashionable and political To this day, there is much debate about whether mclaren was the architect of punk ideology. Sex pistols, punk rock, and fashion revolution as the roaring engine of punk rock drove the counterculture movement forward, vivienne westwood found herself at the heart of a cultural revolution Collaborating with the infamous sex pistols, westwood breathed life into the anarchic spirit of punk through her daring designs. However, she began her journey in the fashion world designing clothes for the punk subculture, such as graphic tees with political messages
After the pistols imploded, westwood, splitting with mclaren, went on to forge a career as a high fashion designer, staging fashion shows and designing both couture and diffusion lines Only a small portion of the vivienne westwood 36 years in fashion exhibition, a retrospective of westwood's career, dates from her punk period.
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