Renowned British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE will speak to fashion design students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and receive an Honorary Doctorate from University President Dr. Elisa Stephens on Sunday, March 4th, 2007.
"We are very privileged to have Dame Vivienne Westwood visit the School of Fashion," said Gladys Perint Palmer, Executive Director of Fashion. "We strive to give our students every opportunity possible to learn and become more excited about the fashion world."
Vivienne Westwood is one of the world's most influential and recognizable fashion designers who, some would say, epitomizes "cool" and virtually invented punk style having dressed the Sex Pistols. In 1970, she opened her first shop Let It Rock at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea in London with her then partner, Malcolm McLaren. Today, 30 years later, she is more concerned with haute couture than street style.
Her first runway show in 1981 was presented at Olympia in London and put her on the map as no longer solely interested in youth and street culture but also in tradition and technique. She began her technical research into historical dress with this collection, adopting and reinterpreting original cutting principles into her patterns and making them modern.
A firm believer that there are no new ideas and that one must research the past to be original in the present, she was quoted as saying in a 2004 interview that "you don't get ideas in a vacuum."
1983 - Showed in Paris - the first British designer to do so since Mary Quant
1984 - Showed in Tokyo
1990 & 1991 - British Designer of the Year
1992 - OBE in recognition of her services to British fashion.
1998 - Queen's Export Award.
2006 - Named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Westwood's son by McLaren, Joe Corre, is the founder of Agent Provocateur.
About Academy of Art University School of Fashion
Established in 1929, Academy of Art University is the largest accredited private art and design school in the US with 10,000 students throughout San Francisco as well as nationally and internationally through the online program. Over 1,200 fashion majors study under the guidance of experienced fashion professionals, many of whom graduated from St. Martins, the Royal College of Art, and Parsons.
The School of Fashion houses five areas of specialization: Fashion Design for Womenswear, Menswear, and Childrenswear; Textile Design; Knitwear Design; Fashion Communications; Fashion Merchandising and Visual Merchandising.
The University works with international brands and recruitment agencies for the development of job placement. Graduates have gone on to work with companies including Azzedine Ala?a, Banana Republic, Burberry, Oscar de la Renta, Pamela Dennis, GAP, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, KITON, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Martin Margiela, Missoni, Alexander McQueen, Nike, Zandra Rhodes, Jeremy Scott, Martine Sitbon, Carla Sozzani's 10 Corso Como, Tocca, Williams Sonoma, Viktor &
Rolf, Diane Von F?rstenberg, and Louis Vuitton to name a few.
Academy of Art University is nationally accredited by ACICS, NASAD, Council for Interior Design Accreditation (Formerly FIDER) (BFA-IAD), and NAAB (M-ARCH).
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