Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist

Lorna Tucker’s biographical documentary profiles fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, a countercultural outsider who the establishment eventually had to embrace after her designs, reflective of the 1970s British punk scene, earned her fame and influence (Westwood has twice won the British Designer of the Year Award, and in 2006 was named a Dame of the British Empire). Tucker introduces Westwood as a spiky septuagenarian who is unwilling to talk about much of her career, including her partnership—in both domestic and business terms—with Malcolm McLaren, manager of the archetypal punk band the Sex Pistols. Tucker combines archival material, on-the-fly footage of Westwood interacting (sometimes contentiously) with her employees, and excerpts from interviews with colleagues, fashion experts, Westwood’s son Joseph, and her second husband and close collaborator Andreas Kronthaler to draw a portrait of a strong, self-confident woman who hailed from a working-class background, was employed for a while as a schoolteacher, is largely self-taught in design, and has always marched to her own drummer. That latter characterization also extends to Westwood’s political activism, where her views on climate change led to her joining a Greenpeace mission (the film includes clips of Westwood on deck, watching an ice pack crumble into the sea). A final montage finds a beaming Westwood basking in applause after taking to the catwalk following premieres of her collections, capping what amounts to another round of cheers for a woman whose impact on modern fashion is undeniable. Recommended. (F. Swietek)