VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
Westwood helped to define the style for modern punk. From her early beginnings dressing the Sex Pistols, Westwood championed a fashion empire with her bold designs. The iconic redhead has embraced every decade with a creative vengeance, from her frivolous frills of the 1980s to her tailored tartans of the 1990s.
ISABELLA BLOW
The late high priestess of fashion was vital in developing the budding genius of Philip Treacy, Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen–having purchased McQueen’s entire graduate collection for £5,000. As a prolific stylist and razor sharp editor, Blow was also credited with discovering emerging beauties Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl.
CLAUDE MONTANA
Born in Paris in 1949 to a Catalonian father and German mother, Montana began his career by designing papier-mâché jewellery covered with rhinestones. Montana was famed for his audacious silhouettes, inspiring other fantasists like Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Christian Lacroix and Alber Elbaz.
KEITH HARING
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on 4 May 1958, the artist-activist is best known for his bold lines, vivid colours and active figures underpinned with messages of life and unity. Believing that the performance—the act of painting—was as important as the final work explains Haring’s interest in collaborating with those at the vanguard of music, art and fashion.
GUY BOURDIN
As one of fashion photography’s great colourists, Bourdin enlivened the pages of Vogue Paris with searingly bright props in a dramatic mise en scène. He exhibited feminine flesh, disembodied lips and bare legs—in the spirit of Surrealism—while helping to legitimise voyeurism as an artistic practice.
PAT CLEVELAND
Cleveland, who shares both African American and Native American ancestry, left the United States after becoming disillusioned by the fashion industry’s unwillingness to promote diversity. Soon after landing in Europe, Cleveland befriended Karl Lagerfeld who helped the willowy beauty become one of the first black models to dominate international runways.
DIANA VREELAND
Diana Vreeland once mused that fashion was the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world. As an editor-in-chief, talent scout, fashion advisor and cultural orator, Vreeland helped elevate fashion to an art form through her pioneering work at Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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