Why Vivienne Westwood was a business as well as fashion icon: Rashmi Dubé

For a woman that was from Tintwistle, Derbyshire she loved the regions and always wanted to lend her support to them wherever she could. She assigned herself to Yorkshire in many ways - with her shop firmly set in Leeds at the Victoria Quarter, she also would set up pop-up shops around Yorkshire, not to sell clothing but to provide history of her journey and understanding about her supply chain, which often was based in the UK, Italy, China and Africa.

She was from the very start about “Buy Less, Buy Better.”

She championed sustainability in fashion long before the word became overused by every retailer globally. As an entrepreneur she was a future thinker and was not only bold in her choices of design but also in her vision of what the fashion industry should be doing in terms of sustainability. She encouraged using environmentally friendly clothing such as recycled cotton but also created codes of conduct for supply chains and subcontractors. She was the embodiment of good corporate governance, with her company’s purpose being “We push for a fashion industry that we can be proud to be part of. We are committed to strong, holistic action in the interests of farmers, artisans, supply chain workers, brand employees, our customers, our communities and all life on earth.”

Her vision did not just stop there. There are a number of lessons we can all learn from her as an entrepreneur who started out like we all do - tiny and small with no one taking any bit of notice of us. One of her main lessons for any business either starting out or well and truly accomplished is Be Bold and Just Go For It! Why wouldn’t you? There is always going to be fear in what we set out to do on any new diversification or segmentation of the business or starting out. It is what I call the anticipation of getting into the swimming pool and anticipating that initial impact of cold upon you.

But if you see a gap in the market or an ability to do something totally different why not you? Why not take that chance and go for it?

In the current economic climate, there are a number of factors and reasons for you to be concerned but find someone who has experience around changes in the markets and interest rates and can offer to steer you through the terrain.

As you create change in whatever industry you sit in, remember you have to start somewhere.

Why not start from where you are now and bring on as many people who have a voice and offer influence to drive change for the better. But this change that Westwood advocated for so fiercely appears to fall upon deaf ears in respect of the tech world and particularly social media.

The values and beliefs of Westwood, from Being Bold to the importance of education of topics that make you better and care about the wider community and your immediate chains in your business, are lessons still to be learnt and embodied into many businesses.

Westwood was ahead of her time at every stage of her career. I for one would hope that I can look to her and learn her lesson in my life as a director and entrepreneur.

Rashmi Dubé is a partner at gunnercooke