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75 Vivienne Westwood: "Get a Life" In a career that spans five decades, Dame Vivienne Westwood has proven herself to be one of the great forces in fashion history. She burst onto the scene in 1971, with a shop at 430 Kings Road in London rebranded as SEX in 1974. Working with her partner, music impresario Malcolm McLaren, Westwood was a key figure in the birth of Punk: think bondage trousers, loose-knit mohair sweaters, and substantial safety pins. The shop was the birthplace of The Sex Pistols, led by Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious and managed by McLaren; bass player Glen Matlock worked the counter. SEX was a key spot for many in the Punk movement, including Siouxsie Sioux, Billy Idol, and Chrissie Hynde. "Punk was a reaction to the fact that the people who caused the Vietnam War were still running the world," Westwood has explained. "It was like, 'We are not going to accept any of your taboos or values at all. All activists are driven by the same motive: We cannot stand human suffering. We can't stand the mismanagement of the world. Right now, we suffer climate change, the end of the civilization and the extinction of the human race. So, I am a fashion designer and an activist.'" Doroshenko felt that the combination of Westwood's design, graphics, photography, and activism was the perfect blend for the Dallas Contemporary. "We are in the Design District," he says, "and we have always treated industrial design, fashion design, and photography as components of the arts. We are multidisciplinary — we want to push the boundaries." The Contemporary's new senior curator, Laurie Farrell, was equally enthused about a Westwood exhibition. In fact, in 2015, she worked on a retrospective for the designer in her previous position at the Savannah College of Art and Design, curated by André Leon Talley. Two earlier, smaller versions of "Get a Life" have been mounted in Asia, in 2017 in Shanghai, and 2018 in Tokyo. But this will be the first time a show in North America has focused on Westwood's activism. "We really advocated to do this now," Farrell says. "I think that it is incredibly timely. Perhaps our lack of attention to the climate and the environment is putting us in a position where we can simply no longer look the other way — we have to engage with this. So, the show is about how Vivienne is using fashion as a vehicle to convey social urgency. And she just doesn't talk the talk — she is out there taking action." Westwood has been tireless in her advocacy, working closely with such organizations as Greenpeace and the United Nations. She has supported female artisans in Africa, worked with the Cool Earth to halt the destruction of the rainforest, and designed the official Save the Arctic logo for Greenpeace. One section of the show will focus on that initiative, when Westwood and photographer Andy Gotz shot 60 celebrities in her Save the Arctic T-shirt, including Dame Judy Dench, Jerry Hall, George Clooney, Stella McCartney, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss. "There will be projections with the images of celebrities fading in and out," Farrell says. "I think people will enjoy seeing who wore the T-shirts." One installation the curator is particularly excited about involves a printed backdrop of an original artwork by Westwood in front of an ensemble she designed in 2007, entitled I am Expensive. "She is talking about the fashion industry and sustainability," Farrell says. "Choose well, buy less, make it last." Farrell is also struck by the sheer scale of what Westwood has accomplished. "The longevity of her career is something that aspiring designers and artists can learn from," she says. "Lines are blurring, and TOP: © PAOLO ROVERSI, COURTESY DALLAS CONTEMPORARY BOTTOM: KI PRICE Top: Paolo Roversi's Audrey, Paris, 1996, from "Paolo Roversi: Birds" at Dallas Contemporary Bottom: Westwood, center, leads a climate protest outside her Spring-Summer 2016 Red Label show in London. (continued)