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31 Dec

Remembering Dame Vivienne Westwood: Industry Figures Share Memories of

LONDON — WWD’s legendary late publisher and editorial director John B. Fairchild described Vivienne Westwood as a “designer’s designer” and her peers definitely agree.  Designers and fashion industry figures have been paying tribute to Westwood, who died Thursday at age 81, describing her not only as an iconoclast but as a fantastic teacher and role model. Fairchild considered Westwood one among the world’s six biggest designers, together with the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Emanuel Ungaro and Christian Lacroix. Westwood signed a seven-year licensing agreement with Giorgio Armani in 1984 that gave the Italian designer exclusive rights to her name. But no clothes were ever produced under the agreement and in 1987 Westwood actually sued Armani for failing to pay her....
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3 Sep

Six cult fashion figures in dire need of a

LEIGH BOWERYFamed for monstrously flamboyant looks and controversial performance art, Leigh Bowery originally got here from a sleepy Melbourne suburb called Sunshine, before moving to London in 1980 where, after a short-lived stint working at Burger King, he made his name on the underground club circuit. Between nights at Heaven, Asylum, and his own lurid enterprise Taboo, Bowery began to radicalise his appearance, dressing his hulking 6’1 frame in gimp masks, towering platforms, and ratty pubic wigs. He’d carve holes in his cheeks for safety-pin piercings, gaffer tape his flesh into impossibly feminine silhouettes, and drip his bald head in hot glue. By day, Bowery designed costumes for Culture Club, Michael Clark’s dance company, and dabbled in art direction for Massive...
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