Gladys Perint Palmer to Lecture on Famous British Fashion Designer Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE at the de Young Museum

San Francisco, CA (PRWeb) February 4, 2007 -- On Saturday, March 24, 2007, at 10 AM, Gladys Perint Palmer, Executive Director of Fashion at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, will speak on and present a slideshow of her drawings of renowned British fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE entitled "Vivienne Westwood: From Anarchy to Aristocracy - Fig Leaf to Crown" at the de Young Museum for the Textile Arts Council. Following there will be a question and answer period.

"I am honored to speak on such an important fashion industry leader," said Gladys Perint Palmer. "I have covered Dame Vivienne Westwood's fashion design shows for many publications and have enjoyed drawing her daring and sometimes outrageous collections throughout the years."

Gladys is a highly respected journalist and illustrator who covers the European collections for many publications. In 1998, The Fashion Book by Phaidon Press named her one of 500 people of influence in fashion since 1860. Fashion People, her book of drawings and irreverent captions, was published in 2003 by Assouline and she is presently working on her second book.

Her work has appeared in London Sunday Times, The New York Times Magazine, Elle, Town & Country, The New Yorker, Talk Media, and Vogue, to name a few. Clients have included Geoffrey Beene, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Missoni and Versace, among others.

In addition to her lecture, Gladys Perint Palmer and Academy of Art University President Dr. Elisa Stephens will award Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE with an Honorary Doctorate at a ceremony on Sunday, March 4th. Westwood will also address the fashion students and tour the fashion school of Academy of Art University.

About Fashion Designer Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE

Vivienne Westwood is one of the most influential and recognizable fashion designers who, some would say, epitomizes "cool" and virtually invented punk style having dressed the Sex Pistols. In 1970, she opened her first shop Let It Rock at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea in London with her then partner, Malcolm McLaren. Today, 30 years later, she is more concerned with haute couture than street style.

A firm believer that there are no new ideas and that one must research the past to be original in the present, she was quoted as saying in a 2004 interview that "you don't get ideas in a vacuum."

1983 - Showed in Paris - the first British designer to do so since Mary Quant
1984 - Showed in Tokyo
1990 & 1991 - British Designer of the Year
1992 - OBE in recognition of her services to British fashion.
1998 - Queen's Export Award.
2006 - Named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Westwood's son by McLaren, Joe Corre, is the founder of Agent Provocateur.

About Academy of Art University School of Fashion

Established in 1929, Academy of Art University is the largest accredited private art and design school in the US with 10,000 students throughout San Francisco as well as nationally and internationally through the online program. Over 1,200 fashion majors study under the guidance of experienced fashion professionals, many of whom graduated from St. Martins, the Royal College of Art, and Parsons.

The School of Fashion houses five areas of specialization: Fashion Design for Womenswear, Menswear, and Childrenswear; Textile Design; Knitwear Design; Fashion Communications; Fashion Merchandising and Visual Merchandising.

The University works with international brands and recruitment agencies for the development of job placement. Graduates have gone on to work with companies including Azzedine Alaïa, Banana Republic, Burberry, Oscar de la Renta, Pamela Dennis, GAP, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, KITON, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Martin Margiela, Missoni, Alexander McQueen, Nike, Zandra Rhodes, Jeremy Scott, Martine Sitbon, Carla Sozzani's 10 Corso Como, Tocca, Williams Sonoma, Viktor & Rolf, Diane Von Fürstenberg, and Louis Vuitton to name a few.

Academy of Art University is nationally accredited by ACICS, NASAD, Council for Interior Design Accreditation (Formerly FIDER) (BFA-IAD), and NAAB (M-ARCH).

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