Christa Ackroyd bids farewell to Vivienne Westwood, the punk legend who showed women how to break bondage

While the world was mourning the loss of undoubtedly one of the greatest footballers of all time, Pele, the passing of the fashion legend was almost lost among the sporting tributes.

And reading about her left me with a renewed sense of pride as to how far women have come from when she started in the late Sixties.

We have grown strong because of women like her.

Born in Derbyshire, this former primary school teacher trod her own path, changed fashion and changed the role of female entrepreneurs.

But it is not her sense of style, her innovation or even her fashion sense I envy.

No, it is quite simply that in a world of doubters she didn’t give a damn.

That’s what her clothes said. That is how she lived her life campaigning till the last..

Or as one report on her passing put it, the rebel who was never without a cause, from her stance against everything from fracking to climate change long before they became “fashionable”.

Among those to lament her passing was Peta founder Ingrid Newkirk, who wrote to The Yorkshire Post describing how Westwood was an early adopter of Peta’s fur-free ethos. “The world has lost a true original and animals a true friend,” she said.

And yet at the heart of Westwood’s fashion was tradition, with a twist.

Androgynous coats made for men or women.

Bustles and tartan with a touch of bondage.

The tailoring and the cloth were superb.

They were clothes that made a statement but were also made to last.

That is why they have become collector’s items and why they have been preserved in no less a great British institution than the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Vivienne Westwood was never in it for the latest fad.

In fact, she often spoke against consumerism, saying: “I just tell people, ‘Stop buying clothes’.”

But those of us who did will now treasure them even more even though that most traditional of emblems, her crown, got me into trouble with the female boss at the time at the BBC.

"You can’t wear that,” she said of my rather discreet version of the Westwood symbol pinned on my sober news reading suit lapel. “It’s advertising.”

“It’s a piece of jewellery,” I replied.

So did I wear it?

No, I took it off as instructed.

Damn that’s not what Vivienne would have done. I should have kept it on.

I loved her clothes. It took a certain kind of a woman and perhaps even more so a certain kind of man to wear them.

But even more of a woman to design them.

What kind of a mind must she have had to be so confident, so different that even when she received her first gong at Buckingham Palace in a rather sober grey suit, she announced to the world she wasn’t wearing any knickers.

Actually she wasn’t but she was wearing tights so it wasn’t as dramatic as it sounded when she twirled around.

But my goodness was she always ahead of the game.

She practically invented punk rock and the slogan T-shirt.

And it was her who suggested that underwear worn as outer garments would one day be de rigueur.

Hence Madonna’s conical bra from Jean Paul Gaultier.

But her journey wasn’t always easy. I was reminded this week of the ridicule that she faced when being interviewed by Sue Lawley sitting in for Wogan in the late Eighties.

She looked a million dollars and actually had dressed down.

But still the audience laughed, encouraged by her fellow guests, when she said men would one day wear what they wanted, whether that be twin-set and pearls.

And do you know what Harry Styles did just that, only years later.

Vivienne Westwood was not just a fashion icon.

She was an icon for women.

God bless her, she taught us never to give a damn about what others may say and in that she is a hard act to follow.

There were so many others of her generation who did the same in that era.

Billie Jean King changed not just a sport but the way women were perceived, not just in terms of pay but in terms of sexuality.

Tracey Emin was ridiculed for her bed as art. But she made us think about art in as important a way as Picasso or Hockney ever did.

Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto changed the way women were viewed in countries where male dominance exists to this day.

Yorkshire’s own Betty Boothroyd was not the first female Speaker of the House of Commons but proved any girl from any background given the opportunity can take centre stage.

JK Rowling wrote a series of books that have made children worldwide read again.

Floella Benjamin became a Baroness not for her work in children’s television but because she broke down barriers in terms of race.

Karren Brady proved a woman could not only understand football but run it.

And Doreen Lawrence in battling for justice for her son fought to be seen as a strong woman with a voice that demanded to be heard.

Vivienne Westwood paved the way for all of us.

She may not have been your cup of tea in the fashion stakes but surely each and one of us envies her sense of style and her sense of freedom.

Above all we as women must seek to emulate her sense of self-worth.

I will wear that little crown broach and her jacket and tartan skirt with pride.

If only we could be more like her.

We are not all destined to be trendsetters.

But my goodness as we all strive to just live an honest life may we be reminded of the woman who just did what she needed to do.

And never gave a damn.