Vivienne Westwood opens new Glasgow store

Christopher Di Pietro, global brand director, said the 81-year-old fashion icon and political activist had a "natural affinity with Scotland" and wanted to grow the business in a city with a "loyal following".

Dame Vivienne opened her first Scottish retail outlet in the city's Princes Square in 2008.

At the time, the franchise owners said Glasgow was the "only serious retail location for luxury goods" in Scotland.

The brand has moved into a larger unit at 1 Royal Bank Place, on the edge of Royal Exchange Square after closing the boutique store, reports The Herald. 

The new 90sq meter outlet will now offer all Vivienne Westwood collections – including the design house’s unisex concept collection Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood.

Dame Vivienne has continually flirted with Scottish iconography and used tartan in several collections.

In 2014, the Derbyshire-born punk designer  used her London fashion week show to endorse the Yes vote for Scottish independence.

She sent models down the catwalk wearing “Yes” badges and distributed a statement headed “Democracy in the UK”

She later told reporters: “I hate England … I like Scotland because somehow I think they are better than we are. They are more democratic.” She described the Better Together campaign as “frightened and stupid."

Christopher Di Pietro, Vivienne Westwood Global Brand Director, said: “Vivienne has always had a natural affinity with Scotland.  

"Traditional Scottish fabrics such as Harris Tweed and tartan have been present in our collections for many years and helping to keep these manufacturing techniques and artisanal skills alive is really important to us. 

"We have such a loyal following in Scotland and we want to continue to grow our Westwood community there, so it feels natural to have our Scottish home in Glasgow."

Vivienne Westwood began designing in 1971 along with her then partner Malcolm McLaren in London. 

The pair pioneered the punk look when the shop changed its name to Sex, selling rubber S&M clothing, ripped clothes and T-shirts with pornographic text and images.

The punk style began to gain notoriety when the Sex Pistols wore clothes from Westwood and McLaren's shop at their first gig, with McLaren becoming the band's manager.

The use of zips, rips, chains, bondage, tartan and slogans continue to have an impact on fashion today.

By the end of the seventies Vivienne Westwood was already considered a symbol of the British avant-garde and for Autumn/Winter 1981 she showed her first catwalk presentation at Olympia in London. 

Westwood then turned to traditional Savile Row tailoring techniques, using British fabrics and 17th and 18th century art for inspiration.

In 1989 she met Andreas Kronthaler, who would later become her husband and long-time design partner, as well as Creative Director of the brand. A collaboration with Specsaver was launched this year.

In 2004 the Victoria & Albert museum, London, hosted a Vivienne Westwood retrospective exhibition to celebrate her then 34 years in fashion – the largest exhibition ever devoted to a living British fashion designer.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992 and advanced to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2006.

Dame Vivienne features in a new six-part TV series charting the rise and fall of the Sex Pistols by Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. 

Pistol is based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol.