Vivienne Westwood, an influential fashion maverick who played a key role in the punk movement, died Thursday at the age of 81.

Westwood’s eponymous fashion house announced Her death on social media platforms says she passed away peacefully. The statement did not disclose the cause of her death.

Westwood’s fashion career began with the explosion of punk in the 1970s. At this time, her radical approach to urban street style took the world by storm. However, she enjoyed her long career highlighted by a series of glorious runway shows in London, Paris, Milan and New York.

The name Westwood has become synonymous with style and demeanor, even as she shifted focus over the years. Her range was vast and her work was never predictable.

As she grew taller, she seemed to transcend fashion, and her designs were displayed in museum collections around the world. She used her elite status to lobby for environmental reform, even as she continued to dye her bright orange hair, which became her trademark.

Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, said Westwood was a pioneer of the punk look, combining radical fashion approaches with the anarchic punk sound developed by his then-partner-managed Sex Pistols. He said he would be honored. Malcolm McLaren.

“They gave the punk movement a look and a style that was so radical it broke with anything that was in the past,” he said. “Ripped shirts, safety pins, provocative slogans. She introduced postmodernism, which has been influential since the mid-’70s. It’s become part of the fashion vocabulary.It’s now mainstream.”

Westwood’s long career was full of contradictions. She was a lifelong rebel and was honored many times by Queen Elizabeth II. Dressed as she was in her teens even in her 60s, she has outspokenly endorsed the fight against global warming, warning that the planet will perish if climate change isn’t brought under control.

Westwood’s clothing during the punk era was often deliberately shocking. Her T-girlfriend shirts with pictures of naked boys and the sadomasochistic “bondage her pants” were staples of her favorite shop in London. But Westwood was able to make the transition from punk to haute couture without missing a beat, continuing her career without stooping to a caricature of her self.

“She was always trying to reinvent fashion. is very proud of her, and she still speaks it.

One of those offensive and controversial designs featured a swastika featuring an inverted image of Jesus Christ on the cross and the word “destroy.” In her autobiography co-authored with Ian Kelly, she said this was intended as part of a statement against politicians who torture people, quoting Augusto Pinochet of Chile. When asked in a 2009 interview with Time magazine if he regretted designing the swastika, Westwood said no.

“I wouldn’t, because we just told the older generation, ‘We don’t accept your values ​​and taboos. You’re all fascists,'” she replied.

In the early days, she worked hard, but over time she seemed tired of the hustle and bustle. Having been designing for decades, she has sometimes longed to act outside her fashion so that she can devote herself to environmental causes and educational projects.

After presenting one of her new collections at the 2010 show, she told the Associated Press: “I’m trying to find other things I want to do.” We were discussing plans to start