Sex, Seditionaires And A Thirty-Year Legacy
Sex, Seditionaires And A Thirty-Year Legacy
Joe Corré is the son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren and one of the Directors of The Vivienne Foundation. In this filmed interview produced by Byronesque, he addresses the complex and controversial business of authenticating Sex and Seditionaries items. Taking us on a journey from the beginning of punk to Pirates and the rise of Vivienne Westwood the brand; discussing items from original Seditionaries to licensed designs by BOY, legitimate re-issues and rare pieces from throughout the rest of Vivienne’s long career. To illustrate that ‘authenticating’ the punk era of Vivienne Westwood, created in collaboration with Malcolm McLaren, is not an exact science, Byronesque asked Julie Zerbo, a fashion lawyer and founder of The Fashion Law, to interview Joe. Throughout the interview, Joe shares stories and details that only someone who was there at the time with Vivienne and Malcolm would know, casting doubt on self-appointed experts who weren’t.
Produced by Gill Linton
Edited by Chase Coughlin
Assistant research editor Dorothea Hörmann
Assistant research editor Anna Maria Somma
Filmed by Justin Westover
Opening music: God Save The Queen (Bollock Brothers vocals and lyrics Michael Fagan)
Soundtrack: UNKLE “Chemistry”(J Homme, J Lavelle, R File, C Goss)
Special thanks to: Chase Coughlin, Dorothea Hörmann, Anna Maria Somma, Skylar Kang,Joe Corré, Cora Corré, Stavros Karelis, James Lavelle, Julie Zerbo.
The partnership between Byronesque and Machine-A, known as Machine-B, is also back to support The Vivienne Foundation with an exclusive sale of the official Sex and Seditionaries costumes from Pistol, the TV drama series about the Sex Pistols by Director Danny Boyle. Part of the license deal that Vivienne agreed in 2021 with FX that allowed the production company to reproduce her designs for the film, included the agreement that all of the costumes and clothing props would be donated to The Vivienne Foundation.
The collection includes over 400 replicas of every design from the Sex and Seditionaries era including Tit’s T’s, Anarchy shirts, muslin tops, bondage trousers, mohair knits and rubberwear. Profits from the sale go directly to The Vivienne Foundation and the causes Vivienne was passionate about. In this instance the Foundation is donating profits from this sale to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua—whose people have suffered genocide perpetrated by Indonesia for many years—and to the International Red Cross Committee supporting their work in Sudan – The world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
A campaign created by Insurgent called “Demand the Impossible”, reminds the world that resistance still has a path. Shot by Alessandro Simonetti, known for his raw documentation of global subcultures, the imagery captures defiance as something real, not recreated.
Creative Director Cyrus Vantoch-Wood
Photographer Alessandro Simonetti
Stylist Skylar Kang
Styling Assistant Zaneta Rehakova
Make-Up Dasha Taivas
Make-Up Assistant Amanda Sachovaite
Hair Darren Agyei-Dua
Producer Chloe Davis
Project Manager Serena Paget
Models:
PROTEST CAPITALISM Rose Wheeler.
HALT CLIMATE CHANGE Ethan Samuel Jacobs.
STOP WAR Agne Qami.
DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS Shay Kwon.