When the album rose to number one on the music charts, it was proof “there was genuine opposition to what was going on,” Reid previously told the Guardian. Among those sharing a rented flat with her brother, Gordon, was a charismatic art student, Malcolm McLaren. Westwood and her son moved in, too, and she became McLaren’s first girlfriend, soon pregnant with their son, Joe, who was born in 1967 – but only, Westwood claimed, after she had decided against an abortion and spent the money on a cashmere sweater instead. On view until 18 August, these rare items hail from the collection of Andrew Krivine, a leading punk memorabilia collector. The Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten came to see the exhibition and told Rolling Stone that he has “no idea what they view as ‘punk art,’ and so why not?”

Punk questioned everything, and it's that spirit of inquiry that is driving MAD forward today, presenting and debating innovative works and ideas with lots of energy, color, and noise."Much of the copy and pasting culture that defined punk is rooted in the Dada collages of Hannah Hoch, says Blauvelt. “Sterling was sourcing works from lifestyle magazines and making gender commentary in the posters,” said Blauvelt. “On one hand, it’s a revival of this cut-and-paste strategy, in another way, it’s a new time period.” But those who knew him described a polite, dapper English gentleman who loved art, music and clothes with a passion – he was fond of tweed suits and Doctor Who-style scarves – and had an almost childlike enthusiasm for his projects and pranks. His death has melted one of music's most bitter feuds. "For me, Malc was always entertaining," Lydon said. "Above all else, he was an entertainer."

In October 1986, when asked about the plans for her S/S87 collection, Vivienne Westwood told The Face, “I’m using my shop as a crucible. The stuff that’s in there is what will sell elsewhere… It’s kind of market research…” Westwood and her then partner Malcolm McLaren had opened their first Chelsea-based boutique in 1971, and it operated not only as a testing ground for global sales, but as a location of diverse and famed retail incarnations, selling the uniforms of socio-economic rebellion. Unless otherwise noted, all objects in this exhibition are courtesy of Andrew Krivine. The Museum of Arts and Design is extremely grateful for his support of this exhibition. Mythical wheezes, such as a Pistols-era plan to visit Madame Tussauds and melt the wax effigies of the Beatles, were typical of McLaren's tendency to blur fantasy and reality and turn hype into an art form. His talent was perhaps not so much in coming up with ideas as seizing on other people's and making them more successful.

I really have no idea what they view as ‘punk art,’ and so why not? Let’s have a go at it.”—John Rotten Lydon in Rolling Stone

Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die: Punk Graphics, 1976-1986is organized by Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and curated by Andrew Blauvelt, Director, with the assistance of Steffi Duarte. The presentation at the Museum of Arts and Design was managed by Curatorial Assistant Alida Jekabson. Since its rebellious inception in the 1970s, punk has always exhibited very visual forms of expression, from the dress and hairstyles of its devotees and the on-stage theatrics of its musicians to the graphic design of its numerous forms of printed matter. As such punk’s energy coalesced into a powerful subcultural phenomena that transcended music to affect other fields such as visual art and design” notes the Museum. Vivienne Westwood with Andreas Kronthaler on the runway during the Vivienne Westwood womenswear fall/winter 2022-2023 show at Paris Fashion Week, March 2022. Photograph: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images She became a primary school teacher and in 1962 married Derek Westwood, a toolmaker with ambitions, which he achieved, to be an airline pilot. Their son, Ben, was born in 1963, but the couple separated soon after, divorcing in 1966. She returned to her parents, and began to make jewellery for a stall in Portobello Road. McLaren's Midas touch came and went throughout his career, but ideas never left him. He blended funk and orchestra on the 1989 album Waltz Darling and recorded the 1994 concept album Paris, which featured Catherine Deneuve. He wrote a song for Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill Vol 2 (2004), and secured a Hollywood deal as an ideas man for Steven Spielberg. He even became an outspoken critic of the burger industry by co-producing the 2006 film Fast Food Nation. He also channelled his bittersweet view of London into programmes for Radio 2 and Channel 4, but cancelled a plan to run for mayor of London in 2000.Her finances remained unsound. With introductions from rag trade friends, she moved incrementally into bank loans and business funding to pay off the debts of Worlds End, and to buy rather than rent her second shop, in Davies Street, Mayfair. Westwood earned where she could, teaching fashion at the Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna (1989-91), and the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (from 1993). In the Vienna lecture room, she fell in love with her best student, Andreas Kronthaler. He moved to London, then into her flat, and they married in 1993. Graphic design is often a thankless job behind the brand name of the client, punk bands included. These names are rarely remembered beyond industry buffs, so putting the names of designers on the walls of a museum is not entirely common. However, the designers did much more than just sell an album.

Designer Arturo Vega, who help shaped the punk aesthetic, is in the exhibition for designing the Ramones logo. “He was very much their creative director,” said Blauvelt. “There was a lot of crossover between the art scene and the Lower East Side, where a lot of punk bands playing in New York. Bands like Devo and Talking Heads were all out of art school, there was a blurring of the art and music scenes.” In New York, artists such as Robert Longo designed album covers for musicians like Glenn Branca, while the photographs of Blondie’s Chris Stein, who shot Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry, offer a record of punk hubs like CBGB.

Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in 1977. The clothes sold by their shop Seditionaries on Kings Road, Chelsea, were attributed to both of them. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images