Saturday, October 18, 2014

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood accused of plagiarism


Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has been accused of plagiarism in her self-titled biography which was released earlier this week.


According to the author of The Look: Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion, Paul Gorman, the Birt-born designer has copied numerous passages almost verbatim from the work in her self-titled biography which was released last week, counting 29 instances of plagiarism altogether, reported The Independent.

The book was written in collaboration with historian and biographer Ian Kelly and is also said to include both grammatical and factual errors, including false claims the fashion legend thought up the idea and title for punk rockers, the Sex Pistols' track Sons of Anarchy.

Both the 73-year-old fashion designer and the publishers Pan MacMillan are yet to respond to the accusations surrounding the work through which Ian claimed he was pleased to have finally told the 'truth' about the 'huge-hearted' designer.

The biography follows the life of the fashion legend from her upbringing in rural Derbyshire, her career and her relationships with her husband and business partner Malcolm McLaren, as well as her second marriage to her former student Andreas Kronthal.


The work also features heartfelt letters from Vivienne's close friends - which throughout her life have included Pamela Anderson, Prince Charles, human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabati, models Naomi Campbell and Jerry Hall, Bob Geldof and Julian Assange