Vivienne Westwood To Write Life Story

Vivienne Westwood will launch her first ever memoir in October next year. The fashion veteran is working alongside her friend and renowned biographer, Ian Kelly, to pen her life story in candid detail.

"The living deserve respect. The dead deserve the truth; Ian and I are working together on this and I am excited that this will be my story, the story nobody ever did before," said Westwood.

Vivienne Westwood

The book, published by Picador, will include contributions from Westwood's family and high-profile friends - although names have not been confirmed yet. The memoir will span her career, from primary school teacher to becoming one of the industry's most famous and rebellious designers. Westwood is known as much for her passionate eco-campaigning, as she is for being one of punk's key influencers - having helped catapult punk style into the mainstream, with her use of tartan, saftey pins and bondage gear.

"Vivienne is much more than what you first see," said Kelly. "She is passionately committed to human rights and to eco-politics, but as well as that I am keen to tell the truth about a huge-hearted, warm and witty individual, whose face and clothes are known the world over - but who is also recognisably the Derbyshire primary school teacher who met and fell in love with Malcolm McLaren and changed the world."