Vivienne Westwood: Where Punk Spirit Meets Cutting-Edge Technology

Iconic British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood set up her fashion brand in the 1970s, reflecting the rebellious spirit of the era and embracing punk and counterculture. With a design record spanning over fifty years, Vivienne Westwood is now recognized as a global brand. Their motto is “buy less, choose well, make it last.” This sets them apart as pioneering a more sustainable form of fashion, discouraging the over-consumption which can be caused by following trends. 

We head to the Vivenne Westwood headquarters in Milan to talk to meet Giorgio Ravasio, the brand’s Country Manager for Italy. Giorgio walks us around the shop floor of their flagship store and explains the company’s commitment to sustainability, rooted in Dame Vivienne Westwood’s own activism. He also talks about how the company is embracing technology to stay at the forefront of a highly competitive fashion industry. 

Find out more about Vivienne Westwood here.
Find out more about Flex PLM here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Dany Mitzman. Music by Rowan Bishop.

Transcript

Welcome to Third Angle, where punk spirit is driving a greener future.

I'm your host, Paul Hames, from industrial software company PTC. In this podcast, we share the moments where digital transforms physical, and meet the brilliant minds behind some of the most innovative products around the world, each powered by PTC technology.

Vivienne Westwood is one of the most iconic and influential fashion brands in the world. Known for its bold designs and rebellious spirit, it was founded by British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood in the 1970s. The brand's motto is “buy less, choose well,” and given the fashion sector is one of the largest contributors to global pollution, water usage, and waste generation, their reputation for not following trends is helping to create a more sustainable fashion industry.

Our producer, Danny Mitzman, visited the Vivienne Westwood headquarters in Milan, Italy and spoke to Giorgio Ravasio, the brand's country manager for Italy. Giorgio takes us around the shop floor and talks about the company's commitment to sustainability and how they're embracing technology to stay at the forefront of fashion.

My name is Giorgio Ravasio. I've been working for Vivienne Westwood since 2001. And my role is a country manager of Italian headquarter. I'm very proud and I'm very,  happy to have, , the opportunity to work for this kind of, , company and people. Makes me really make an experience that is, , is quite incredible.

My mentor was Carlo D'Amario since the beginning of my,  starting point. And, , Carlo D'Amario was,  the founder with, , Dame Vivienne Westwood of the company. And, , it is really amazing how he was able to create around Vivienne, , real industry that, , makes, , this kind of iconic, , creative studio becoming a real industry with retailers, distributors, and coordination of factories that is the company now. So, , a very well-known fashion company competing with the biggest brands all around the world.

I've met Vivienne Westwood a few days after my beginning. And because there was a Christmas party, and so I met Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler. I found in them two incredible person. And even if they were amazing, creative person, famous on worldwide basis, but I, I feel to be, , immediately in, , in harmony with their vision and, , the, the, their attitudes.

I would say that, , considering that this company has started in the late 80s, becoming a creative studio based in London, is incredible how the vision of Carlo D'Amario to, , work very close to an iconic cultural person as Vivienne Westwood was and is. He was able to create, , around her, a real, , fashion worldwide well-known company.

I would say that this company started creating what everybody knows as the punk phenomenon. But on the other way, I would say that the originality of Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler has always been to be provocative and to be not homologated with all the other fashion brands. And starting with punk, they were able to manage a transformation that makes able everybody here to create a new way of punk that is to be elegant.

So, I would say that punk now means something that is dishomologated with society. That means that nowadays it's more punk someone who is reading a book than someone that is wearing a leather jacket.

We are in Vivienne Westwood Milano flagship store and here you can find all the products of the Fall/Winter collection and a small part of the Spring/Summer 25 collection already in store. Here you can find the British tradition that is going to marry with the innovation and the future. The store is around 300 square meters and is composed by two floors.

One floor is dedicated to ladieswear and one floor is dedicated to men. As well as,  bags, shoes, and, , accessories of any kind. We opened the store in September 2003 and we just celebrated last year 20 years of activity and success.

One of the most known Vivienne Westwood motto was “buy less, choose well, make it last.” And there is no contradiction in this from our point of view because we consider that we need to create valuable products that, , can represent, , something that is against,  the consumerism and against the anxiety of consumption.

So in this way, we think that any kind of products must be qualitative and something that is not going to be a waste, but it must be something that is passed through generations.

Technology is fundamental now for making all the processes efficient and real. Flex PLM is a central hub for all our information and,  it, , streamline communication, making us available to, to manage all the product lifecycle. I would say that in the, the last couple of years we have been focused extensively on mapping and digitizing all our internal processes in order to make clarity and a solid structure to support designer. By digitizing workflows and adopting automation we have all significantly decreased all the manual errors and mistakes. We have sped up production timelines and we have provided greater visibility to every stage of the product development in all the departments.

And moreover, we have successfully digitized the key elements of our workflow and specifically the fitting session, the costing activity, the documentation management, and all the processes that are related to this kind of activity. Seems something,  simple, but it's not at all. Lately, this kind of approach, this centralizing all this kind of information can make us able to maintain a competitive edge. As,  also it will enable faster go-to-market strategies as well as reducing cost.

Sustainability has many meanings as a word. For us, to be sustainable means to study a lot in how we can do better. For doing this, I have to say that we have put all our best efforts in trying to reach, , the principle and the values that Vivienne Westwood has always expressed in her activism. Of course, we are still in the process of learning, so we are not so keen to express our result in sustainability, because we know that the things we have to do are more than the things we have done. So in this sense, we have a long way to go for reaching the results that we are keen to reach.

Climate Revolution is a part of our legacy and,  Vivienne had the opportunity to inaugurate the Climate Revolution at the London Olympics closing ceremony. She has supported several charities, NGOs, asking also to individuals to join forces and to take action against disengaged political leaders and big business.

Vivian has also written an activist manifesto called Active Resistance that became another Vivian Westwood motto, which is rooted in culture and as a stimulus to save the planet for future generations.

Switch to green energy is one of the campaigns that was sustained by Vivienne Westwood and the company as well. And everything started in 2017. When the British Fashion Council, Vivienne Westwood and the Mayor of London joined forces in a campaign to bring the fashion industry, all the fashion industry together to lead a call to action and to join Vivienne in switching to a renewable energy suppliers or to a renewable energy tariff.

We have a unique value proposition. We cherish quality and heritage, and most of our fabrics are sourced in Italy. And the proximity with the Italian hub allows a strong supervision. Over the years, we have built a long-lasting relationship with our direct sub manufacturers and I would say the loyalty is quite a key point of our success, I would say. Because they play an important role in achieving the quality we aim for.

In particular, we have studied sometimes how to recycle the products from leftovers. Sometimes we were used to work and to cooperate with our factories to reuse and recycle the leftovers, creating new materials for doing our new collection. So, we are trying to experiment new ways of doing business in order to comply with these principles and values.

I think to have been lucky to join this company because I had the possibility to work with Vivienne Westwood, Andreas Contales and Carlo D'Amario, inspirational persons that are able to motivate and to commit people to a different vision of the world. I think that, , the company is a huge value in having, , these kind of drivers. And for this reason, I think that a stronger quality of the company is to have loyal employees that have been working for the company for 20, 30 or 40 years that are quite a base of solid structure to which the company can can be trustful and,  and be supported.

I have learned a lot from our president, Carlo De Mario. I think that, , his vision of, , creating a solid structure to permit to designer to express theirself is a secret of the success of this project. I would say that this mix of, , international culture and multicultural universe. , in fact, we have people coming from, , every country of the world, we have this ownership that is a mix between Germans, English and Italian culture creates this kind of contradiction that internally means the capability of growing up and learning every day something new.

Discussion and dialectical activity are the base of the daily activity of the company. This kind of solid structure makes also comfortable all the company to work in a sense of belonging that is, , makes everything that we do something special.

That was Giorgio Ravasio, sharing his thoughts on the modernization of the Vivienne Westwood brand. Time to meet our expert, Kyle Marden, who can tell us more. 

Kyle, the Vivienne Westwood brand has surged in popularity and has seen remarkable growth. Can you share how PTC is supporting their transformation and contributing to this success?

There are a few key areas where we have partnered very successfully with Vivienne Westwood. I’d say first is having a single source of the truth for product and seasonal data. One of the biggest challenges in fashion retail is managing complex product development data across diverse categories and dispersed teams, which Vivienne Westwood has.

Centralizing critical data in FlexPLM for Vivian Westwood's designers, merchandisers, and developers, covering their product categories like apparel, footwear, jewellery, accessories, leather goods, and bridal is critical to their success. This centralized platform, which is FlexPLM, not only fosters seamless collaboration, but also provides a visually rich and accurate lineboard overview for collections that enables faster data-driven design and product development decisions.

Which is key to the product development process for Vivienne Westwood and many of our other customers. By improving collaboration, reducing errors, and streamlining workflow, FlexPLM empowers Vivienne Westwood to bring on-trend products to market with greater speed, efficiency, and profitability. Secondly, I'd say sustainability, especially in the EU to achieve sustainability and CSR goals, brands need real-time insights into product, material, and supplier data with an easy-to-use tool to support certification and compliance requirements, especially in the EU with current legislations in place and eventually evolving legislation that will take place in the future.

PTC and FlexPLM provide complete visibility across the value chain and helps them respond to their customers demand for sustainability and ultimately helps them deliver on their company motto which is “buy less, choose well, and make last.” 

And thirdly, at the heart of our partnership with Vivienne Westwood, is regular alignment meetings with their PLM team, but their leadership team. These sessions allow us to understand Vivienne Westwood's strategic objectives and tailor our solution, FlexPLM, accordingly. By aligning with Vivienne Westwood's strategic planning with FlexPLM, we ensure the solution evolves in lockstep with their business needs, driving continuous innovation and success. It's a win-win for both parties. 

So in conclusion, I'd say my most important point, FlexPLM is not just a software solution. It's a strategic enabler for Vivienne Westwood's growth and success and digital foundation for their product development. By centralizing data, enhancing sustainability and fostering collaboration, FlexPLM empowers Vivian Westwood to accelerate their product development and in turn thrive in today's dynamic and ever-changing retail fashion landscape.

Thanks to Kyle Marden and also to Giorgio Ravasio. for sharing Vivienne Westwood's vision and our producer, Danny Mitzman, for taking us behind the scenes with them. Please rate, review and subscribe to our bi-weekly Third Angle episodes, wherever you listen to your podcasts and follow PTC on LinkedIn and X for future episodes.

Companies that make products the world relies on rely on PTC.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Danny Mitzman. And music by Rowan Bishop.