VIVE LE ROCK — Westwood / McLaren Era Replica Tee (c. 1976–1977)
Before punk was a marketing category, it was a provocation — and few garments embodied that provocation more than the original “Vive Le Rock” T-shirt sold at SEX / Seditionaries on King’s Road by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in the mid-1970s.
First appearing around 1976–1977, the design layered 1950s rock ’n’ roll iconography with détournement — a bold portrait of Elvis Presley defaced with the anarchic phrase “VIVE LE ROCK.” It wasn’t nostalgia. It was disruption. Westwood and McLaren were recontextualizing American pop mythology and weaponizing it against British establishment culture.
The shirt became part of the uniform of early punk — worn by members of the Sex Pistols, scene regulars, and London’s emerging underground. It blurred lines between homage and sabotage, between idol worship and icon vandalism. That tension was the point.
The original Westwood shop constantly evolved — from Let It Rock (1971) to SEX (1974) to Seditionaries (1976) — each iteration pushing harder against convention. “Vive Le Rock” came at the precise moment when punk was crystallizing into movement: DIY, confrontational, anti-polish.
