Vogue on Vivienne Westwood

Vogue on Designers

by Linda Watson

A provocateur, radical thinker, and instigator of the most important sartorial statements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Vivienne Westwood is a fearless nonconformist with a relentless passion for tradition. From the mini crini, the liberty corset, and the rocking-horse shoe to the stunning, sumptuous wedding dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City and Dita Von Teese's infamous purple wedding dress, Westwood has unleashed her imagination on the world for almost 40 years. Her Pirate and Edwardian looks were worldwide fashion trends, and her revolutionary designs include the co-creation of the punk style, the introduction of street style into high fashion, the reworking of the crinoline, the restyling of Harris tweed, and the reintroduction of platforms and the hourglass figure. She has been described by Anna Wintour as 'an unbelievable influence' and by Alexander McQueen as 'the Coco Chanel of our day'.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Art

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2013

About the author

Linda Watson is a food evangelist who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, a veritable hotbed of sustainable agriculture with a rich ethnic mix. She started the Cook for Good project after being inspired by the national Food Stamp Challenge: living on a dollar a meal per person for a week. Her three-week experiment became a lifestyle, the website CookforGood.com, the book Wildly Affordable Organic, and now the Wildly Good Cook videos and teachers' training program.

Her ears perked up when she heard that Fifty Shades of Grey had outsold Harry Potter. Why not write a funny book that combines romance and recipes? The result is her new book Fifty Weeks of Green. It celebrates sustainability and the fiery potential of women old enough to have hot flashes

If you and Linda wound up sitting next to each other on plane, you might find out that:

She really believes in the power of cooking a pot of beans every week
She wants to help you live your dreams by using the skills you already have
She's lost 20 pounds since becoming a cookbook writer, just by eating real food cooked from scratch
She's battling ivy in her garden to establish an edible forest garden
She's taken improv and stand-up comedy classes at Dirty South Improv Comedy Theater
She's the inventor of the Rudeness Index, used in the language engine for Douglas Adams' computer game Starship Titanic
She's an optivore and a flexitegan, not a food Nazi, who knows you don't have to do it all or all the time to make a difference

Reviews

[Peta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice pictures but perhaps could have been written better. Would have loved a bit more on her personal back ground.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meryl bookclub 2026 ✅

[Mads · Rating 3 out of 5]

"i don't think it's possible for any man to be sexy unless he's got a touch of femininity" so true viv. rip to a real one. miss u every day <3

[Aja · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good reference for the long time Vivienne Westwood fan. Really does an excellent job of covering the press surrounding the brand and the different stages that Westwood has gone through in her lifetime as a designer. But still a quick read.

[Lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It only took me a day to read this book as it is very short but it does hold quite a lot of information. I find the life and works of Westwood to be very intriguing and I found this book to be quite engaging.

[Louise Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the pictures, couldn't read the print, much as I wanted to. Size 10 or even 8 font with serifs on shiny paper. Not a chance!

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is so fabulous. Makes me proud to be of her generation.

[Sophie Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the Vogue books and Westwood !!

[Audrey Tobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book but it’s somewhat brief

[theconfusedbookshrimp · Rating 5 out of 5]

AHHHHHHHHH I LOVE VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

[Tracey Sinclair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Westwood, and though there are some nice archive photos the book itself is very poorly written and edited - I stopped reading because the combination of mangled grammar, prose that feels like a dashed off puff piece and a font that is seemingly designed not to be read was giving me a headache.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account and gorgeous prints.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taught me some about a name I had seen but was not at all familiar with her work. crazy and Cool.