Pirate Collection 1981.

March proved to be a particularly successful week for Brit Vivienne Westwood!  It’s been 30 years since Vivienne Westwood unveiled her and Malcolm McLaren’s now infamous Pirate Collection in London in 1981, and she is showing no signs of stopping any time soon!  “This is just the beginning” Carlo D’Amario, Westwood’s partner since 1984, said at the Melrose flagship store event in Los Angeles last week.  It was the first warm night of Spring, and there was no better way to enjoy it than on the terrace of the one-year-old shop, in the company of Dita Von Teese, Heidi Klum, Christina Hendricks, and Vivienne herself.

Westwood mania month was wrapped up by the closure of the exhibition at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Curated by FIT graduates, it explored the designer’s shift from her punk roots to the more sophisticated, yet still provocative romantic style, 1980-89.  “The popularity of punk rock was, in effect, due to the fact that it made ugliness beautiful” the late McLaren has said, a truth which keeps being reinforced with every season and every success of the Westwood brand.

Pirate Collection 1981, Photographed by Robyn Beech.

Red Label Fall 2011.

Vivienne Westwood walks the finale at Gold Label Fall 2011.

Host Christina Hendrick's at the opening of Vivienne Westwood, Los Angeles.

Dita Von Teese at the opening of Vivienne Westwood, Los Angeles.