Vivienne Westwood in ’Sex’ exhibition, London

Backstage moments that capture the spirit of a movement
(Image credit: William English)

It’s often the impromptu, accidental or backstage moments that capture the spirit of a movement, more than anything intentionally staged or obvious. In 1975 William English, then a young film student, took a series of photographs of his friend Vivienne Westwood playing dress-up at the ‘Sex’ shop she ran with Malcolm McLaren at 430 Kings Road in London.

The young Westwood simmering with energy and abandon that would moments later explode from a subculture behind the curtains of the ‘Sex’

(Image credit: William English)

See William English's photographs of Westwood

The photographs show the young Westwood simmering with energy and abandon that would moments later explode from a subculture behind the curtains of the ‘Sex’ shop and find its name and fame as the punk movement.

The collection is now on show as a selling exhibition at another very English institution, though perhaps rather a surprising one – Maggs Bros antiquarian booksellers. Curator Carl Williams, who heads up the Counterculture section of Maggs, explains: ‘I was invited by William English to an exhibition ‘Punk: No One is Innocent’ about five years ago in Vienna where I first saw a few of the snaps. He had the original negatives squirreled away and so we blew them up for this show. I don’t really do innovation much, I prefer to turn over old ground and remind people of what might be important’.

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Maggs Gallery
50 Hays Mews
London W1

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Fashion Features Editor

Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.