Vivienne Westwood Was a SCHOOLTEACHER Who Invented Punk

A quiet primary school teacher with no fashion training would invent the look of punk.

Vivienne Westwood grew up in a small English village and trained to teach children.

She made jewelry on the side, until she met a wild thinker named Malcolm McLaren.

Together they ran a strange little shop on London's King's Road that scandalized everyone.

Then McLaren put together a band called the Sex Pistols, and Westwood dressed them.

She gave punk its uniform: ripped shirts, safety pins, tartan, and straps and zips everywhere.

A whole rebellious generation copied a look invented by a former schoolteacher.

But she refused to stay still, and turned to bold, theatrical high fashion.

She showed in Paris, revived the corset, and made British style dangerous again.

The teacher who started a rebellion was made a Dame, punk's outsider turned national treasure.

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