As soon as Vivienne Westwood walks into Furness Primary School and stages an
impromptu assembly in the sports hall, it becomes apparent how she kept her pupils
here under control. The children sitting cross-legged in front of her are entirely
transfixed by her matter-of-fact explanations of everything from design to climate
change, desperate to impress the woman who, at 78, has now returned to the Harlesden
building where she once instructed hordes of young children in reading and writing.
“I taught by force of personality,” she explains of her time here; and while her job
as a primary school teacher might at first appear at odds with her career since (punk
provocateur, ardent activist and fashion designer), it makes a curious sort of sense.
Despite the fact that her brand continues to thrive, Vivienne stopped talking
about clothes long ago. “The reason I continue to design is because it gives me a
platform,” she reflects. “I use it to communicate how to save the world.” Her
seasonal runway shows might present new collections, but they’re also an opportunity
to instruct a captive audience on the horrors of climate change and “the rotten
financial system”, preaching the virtues of mindful consumption (“buy better, buy
less”) and of education. At the very core of Westwood’s belief system is the idea
that knowledge is power: “To be an intellectual means that you can think, and
oppose propaganda,” she tells the children. “You’ve got to read – books not screens- because if you read, you start to know everything, know the world.” Her face
lights up when they answer her questions about the consequences of rising sea
levels. “That’s really, really good,” she beams at one particularly articulate boy.
“Because if we don’t stop it, we will all die. If we leave it for much longer, it will
be too late. I believe you should tell children the truth, and that is the truth.”
Vivienne ended up in teaching by circumstance rather than vocation. In the 1950s,
in her hometown of Harrow, only four careers were considered suitable for working-
class women: nurse, hairdresser, teacher or secretary. When she moved to London
at 17, she spotted a series of adverts for Pitman shorthand courses and decided to
embark on a career as the last of these – “I needed to earn a living,” she shrugs – but
soon realised it wasn’t her calling. Instead, desperate to learn about art but perplexed
by the idea of how such an arena could ever provide a living wage, she moved to
teacher training school to become an art teacher. After graduating, she was promptly
offered a job with children between five and seven years old in Harlesden. It wasn’t
the artful opportunity she had imagined, but she took it. > 328
Who’s that teaching children to read and writein a Harlesden classroom? Or deep-frying nuggets atMcDonald’s? Five stars of the British fashion scene revisitthe places where their working lives began. Photographsby Paul Wetherell. Styling by Gianluca LongoVIVIENNE WESTWOOD^
Primary school teacher27809-19-Well-FirstJob.indd 278 05/07/2019 10:54