"Venus" T-shirt

Widely regarded as the most important British fashion designer of the twentieth century, Vivienne Westwood began her career in collaboration with Malcolm McLaren. The duo opened a London boutique in 1971, designing, producing, and merchandising their clothing with hands-on practices that exemplified the DIY ethos that would come to define the punk movement. The music-driven punk subculture, which prized ideas over beauty and action over convention, has had a unique and lasting influence on fashion. Between 1971 and 1979, Westwood and McLaren’s boutique assumed four different identities, exploring a series of looks and themes that together encapsulate the sartorial aspects of punk: bricolage, deconstruction, democracy, humor, and subversion. Among their earliest designs, the “Venus” T-shirt is a stylistic harbinger of punk and an exceptionally rare artifact. Although few examples were produced, Westwood wore the piece prominently, investing it with enduring iconographic value.