Vivienne Westwood Anglomania
- lorenza molina
- Oct 2
- 1 min read
At some point in the late 70’s Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren were researching the new direction he & Vivienne were taking after the death of Punk, which happened when Sid Vicious died. Vivienne’s brother introduced them to Douglas Botting’s “The Pirates”, a book that detailed the infamous activities of pirates around the world. In this book they were introduced to Thomas Tew and his flag, which later became the Worlds End label logo.
Thomas Tew was a 17th century pirate that started off as a privateer, which was state authorized robbery, but on his first commission from the lieutenant governor of Bermuda to destroy a French factory off the coast of West Africa, he changed his mind, deciding instead to turn to piracy or individually motivated robbery (one was legal, the other illegal).
After proposing this to his crew & getting their support, they set sail instead for the Red Sea. Along with French Capt. Misson, he created Libertalia, a pirate colony in Madagascar’s coast. Around 1695 in an engagement aboard the Fateh Muhammed, owned by the Great Mogul of India, Tew was disemboweled by a cannon shot & killed.
Thomas Tew's treasure chest is the only known treasure chest with provenance to a pirate, and can be seen in Pirate Soul, a pirate themed museum in the Florida Keys.
His personal standard (flag) was a white arm holding a sword on a black ground; it means "we are ready to kill you".
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