Belle-a-Coco: Long live Punk!!!

The founder of Punk Malcolm McLaren has died……
He was one of the pivotal and most divisive influences on the styles and sounds of late 20th-century popular culture. He was always a rebel, he attended several Art colleges throughout the 60s including Central St Martin's and Harrow which is where he met and fell in love with Vivienne Westwood. He began to design clothing and in 1971, McLaren and his girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, opened a London clothing shop called 'Let It Rock' on the Kings Road. They popularised looks from punk to fetish, which still dominate the fashion world today. His aim was to "rescue fashion from commodification by the establishment".

McLaren travelled to New York in 1972 and happened upon the group 'The New York Dolls', he became their manager and renamed the shop on Kings Road 'Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die' in their honour. He also supplied the group with all their amazing stagewear. In 1975, McLaren returned to Britain and renamed the store 'SEX' (later Seditionaries) and began selling S&M style clothing. By 1976, McLaren had started to manage a band who would later become the 'Sex Pistols' whose punk-rock music swept through the UK in the 70's. Their uniform was safety-pinned Westwood gear and bondage trousers and their anti-establishment force changed the youth of Britain.

Today you can see McLaren's provocative influence in everything from Damien Hirst's art and bands such as the Libertines through to punk style clothes in the high street. He was likened to Andy Warhol for his change of culture and some say he changed the world. His legacy still lives on as McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's son Joseph Ferdinand Corré founded the amazing Agent Provocateur lingerie brand. He lived his life influenced by what an art teacher had once told him: "We will all be failures. But at least be a magnificent, noble failure. Anyone can be a benign success." Amy xx