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V&A - Vivienne Westwood - Early years

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Early Years/Maturity   Panoramas   Changing Styles   Focus on detail   Biography   V&A influences   Bibliography   Publication The Early Years | Maturity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in Glossopdale, Derbyshire, on 8 April 1941. Her mother had been a weaver in the local cotton mills and her father came from a family of shoemakers. After the war, they ran a sub post office in Tintwistle and in the late 1950s moved to north-west London. Leaving grammar school at 16, Vivienne briefly attended Harrow Art College. She studied fashion and silversmithing, but left after a term because 'I didn't know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world'. She worked in a factory and trained to become a primary school teacher. In 1962 she married Derek Westwood and in 1963 her first son, Benjamin, was born. Vivienne always enjoyed 'cutting a dash'. As a teenager in the 1950s, she customised her school uniform to emulate the fas

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