Malcolm McLaren

FINAL DRAMATIC FAREWELL TO MALCOLM MCLAREN, THE ARCHITECT OF PUNK

Subversive punk icon Malcolm McLaren was laid to rest in the flamboyant style he’d grown accustomed to. “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die,” the slogan from his “Sex” shop, was written on his casket. The funeral procession was led by a horse drawn carriage, and paraded through the home of the punk movement, Camden, in north-west London. Thousands of people lined the streets. Mourners included the remaining Sex Pistols, tarted up Adam Ant, and McLaren’s muse Vivienne Westwood. Westwood wants McLaren to be remembered as an inspiration to the new generation – she advised them to “Get a life – and do something with it!”

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MALCOLM MCLAREN WAS THE ARCHITECT OF PUNK


We can’t let the passing of Malcolm McLaren go by without recognizing his immense cultural influence on both fashion and music. This “architect of punk” gave us The Sex Pistols and revolutionized the disco driven 70’s. In 1971 he opened his “Sex” shop on Kings Road with his then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood and it became a magnet for style obsessed young people everywhere. On our first trip to London, that store was the first stop and it was amazing. (It was rumored that a girl had recently given herself an abortion in the dressing room with a coat hangar.) Bondage gear, red plaid suits, safety pin jewelry, and ripped insult t shirts. Malcolm and Vivienne changed fashion forever and inspired generations of designers to come. We wish we had saved a bondage jacket or seditionary t shirt – they’re worth thousands now.

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