Vivienne Westwood locked away costumes for Sex Pistols miniseries

Vivienne Westwood has locked away the costumes she designed for the Sex Pistols miniseries, claiming they would devalue the originals if they ended up on eBay

Dame Vivienne Westwood has locked away the costumes made for the Sex Pistols biographical mini-series, insisting they must never be worn again.

The 81-year-old designer believes the outfits replicated for the drama, which are based closely on her Seventies designs, would devalue the originals if they became publicly available.

A source said: ‘Vivienne, ever the rebel, would rather see the Pistols costumes destroyed than end up on eBay. Those designs are precise replicas of originals from the shop, which are pieces of history and worth a fortune.

‘New versions, complete with an authentic Vivienne Westwood design label, cannot be allowed to circulate. So they have been archived . . . they are under lock and key.’ The source revealed that the actress Talulah Riley, who appears as Dame Vivienne in the six-part Pistol, ‘was hoping she could keep just one outfit’, adding: ‘She would hardly have sold her costume on eBay, but there was no budging.’

Dame Vivienne Westwood (pictured) has locked away the costumes made for the Sex Pistols biographical mini-series, insisting they must never be worn again

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren, Talulah Riley as Vivienne Westwood on the film set of Pistol

Dame Vivienne is credited with pioneering punk style at SEX, the shop on Chelsea’s King’s Road, that she ran with Malcolm McLaren, her then partner. McLaren, who died in 2010, masterminded the rise of the Sex Pistols as manager.

Joseph Corre, the couple’s son, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The deal was that those designs and garments would be donated to Vivienne’s charitable foundation after filming. They will be kept in the archives as “copies” and labelled as such. There were no new costumes designed.’

Mr Corre, 54, who founded the Agent Provocateur lingerie brand, added: ‘The foundation is a not-for-profit organisation. It was set up to sponsor and support all of Vivienne’s ideas and is the owner of her historical copyright.

‘Those designs for the film had to be licensed through the foundation.’

In 2016, Mr Corre and his mother burnt an estimated £5 million worth of punk rock memorabilia on a barge on the Thames as part of a protest against fracking.

Pistol is directed by the Oscar winner Danny Boyle and appears on Disney+. It is based on guitarist Steve Jones’s 2018 memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol.

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