and I first met on a British photoshoot in 1999. I can’t remember where it was, but I had to be there at 12 o’clock, and I was busy trying to finish work for the Turner Prize. I said I would just go by Tube, but insisted on sending me a car.
The traffic was horrific, and by the time I got there, I was in a really foul mood. Someone from asked if there was anything they could get me, and I said I needed some cigarettes. Then someone walked over and handed me a Gitane – and when I looked up, it was Vivienne Westwood.
She said, “If you think you’ve got a problem, I’ve been here for hours!” We got on immediately and exchanged numbers, and then she invited me to her show in Paris. I was wearing a dress and those boots that had the red up the back, and Vivienne said, “I don’t understand why you’re wearing those boots!” I said it was because I couldn’t walk in high shoes, so then Andreas Kronthaler, her husband and creative partner, made me take them off, he drew around my foot, and that’s when they first made what they called the Tracey trainer. The shoe was made to the shape of my foot, so from then on, I was just running around everywhere in my tall Westwood shoes.
I think Vivienne was drawn to me because she could see that I was a maverick, like her. She said I had a lot of style, and she liked that I was outspoken and unafraid, and had a moral compass. Vivienne was very funny, too.
We used to argue a lot, and not many people argue with Vivienne. But th.
