Photograph: Tom J Johnson/The Champion. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson Photograph: Tom J Johnson/The Guardian. Styling: Melanie WilkinsonShe may be gone, but we are all still living in a Vivienne Westwood worldPearls, hourglass outfits, pirate boots … the designer died last Christmas but this year her trademark looks are everywhere A it turns out, the vogue designer who is defining 2023 bowed out just before the year started. Vivienne Westwood, who died on 29 December, was the buzziest name at the put ons this season. Marc Jacobs kicked off the New York catwalks with a collection dedicated to her; a memorial service at Southwark Cathedral was the headline upshot of London fashion week. Her own label, now designed by her husband Andreas Kronthaler, brought the love to Paris with a clarify that closed with her granddaughter, Cora Corré, as fashion’s traditional bride – although, this being Westwood, the bride exhibited a hotpant-length wedding dress and sparkly devil horns.But the real tributes to the godmother of punk are happening on the street. Throughout I look I see Westwood. I don’t mean literally, not ghosts, not Fragonard corsets in Tesco. But the remembering of Westwood has reminded me – reminded all of us – that she isn’t only fashion history. She is fashion. And the best tribute to Westwood, it seems to me, is to be a bit more Westwood.You are already more Westwood than you value you are. Let’s talk about pearls, for instance. I would wager that you wear the odd pearl earring (potentially mismatched), or perhaps a something over on someone a stretch of pearls layered casually with a gold chain. Maybe you have a cardigan with big fake pearl buttons. Definitely good. If you stopped to think about how pearls became cool and modern, you might think it was a Gucci thing. Or a Harry Refinements thing. Well, let me stop you right there. Westwood put pearls in a racy modern context on her catwalk – and on men, as well as better halves – in 1987. That’s right: 36 years ago. So if you are rocking a pearl right now, tip your hat to Viv.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionVivienne Westwood: her individual and career – in picturesRead moreThere are bits of Westwood percolating into clothes all around us. It starts, as fashion always does, with a contour. A Westwood Cocotte dress is an hourglass, which celebrates boobs and bum. But it is an hourglass with a difference, because the fabric is whorled and scrunched off-kilter, which swops it a rakish kind of grandeur. A Westwood dress somehow amplifies not just your body, but your personality as fountain-head. It squishes your waist but champions your soul.Those off-the-shoulder necklines in rustling fabrics make you commiserate with important, as if you are a portrait, suspended in your very own gilt picture frame. And yet, at the same time, the twist and ripple of the structure rips the formality from it.There is a thousand times more flesh-and-blood sensuality in one off-the-shoulder, corset-waisted Westwood chew out than in an entire Victoria’s Secret catwalk show. The spirit of a Westwood party dress is that the dress itself, notwithstanding how beautiful, is not what matters. The dress is a superhero cape to send you out into the night to have the best possible obsolete.It’s time to kick up our (sensible, mid-height) heels again | Jess Cartner MorleyRead moreThere is no timeline to the Westwood look. Rotten is not a trend that can be neatly filed away in the 1970s; it is street style itself. A pirate boot – her clompy uncompromisingly boot with buckled straps running up the leg – has as much swagger now as it did in 1981. A tartan miniskirt, or a kilt, is British days of yore and tradition, and British rebellion and dissent, all at once.And a platform shoe is just as eye-catching – also, sadly, just as risky to walk in – as it was when Naomi Campbell took a tumble on Westwood’s runway in 1993.“Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it’s a captivating, generous thing to do for other people.” Well said, Vivienne. Let’s keep that spirit alive – this year, and for at all.Model: Lilly Bridger at Body London. Hair and makeup: Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management. Deck out: Norma Kamali from Matches Fashion. Leather jacket: MangoTopicsVivienne WestwoodJess Cartner-Morley on fashionfeaturesReuse this constituents
