By Victoria Musa
 “Vivienne Westwood, The Sex Pistols, Seven Star Cigarettes, Coffee with milk and strawberry cake, and lotus flowers. Nana’s favorite things never changed,”
– HachiÂ
It’s a big day for Nana fans (No, it’s not about the manga being completed)! On October 30th, 2025, Vivienne Westwood will be widely-releasing their new collaboration with the manga/anime. The collaboration features a special edition re-release of the manga for its 25th anniversary, and a new cover that features the two main characters (Nana O and Nana K) dressed in iconic Vivienne Westwood designs. Nana is a best selling, unfinished manga series about two young ladies named Nana, who cross paths on a train, and eventually become deeply intertwined in each other’s lives. The anime depicts a variety of relatable topics ranging from womanhood to toxic relationships; more power to you if you’ve never experienced the latter.Â
Characters such as Nana Osaki, are known for influencing fashion choices within anime watchers who are into fashion. Her short black hair, excessive jewelry, and tartan printed clothes inspired a generation of women when it came to dressing alternative and trendy simultaneously. But where did Nana’s style design come from? Vivienne Westwood.Â
Here’s a quick background on our tartan obsessed late queen: Before the brand Vivienne Westwood was established, the actual designer Vivienne Westwood was a teacher who made clothes on the side for a band called the Sex Pistols. If you know anything about the Sex Pistols then you know that their bass player Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen – allegedly, and that the band was a caricature of punk bands that was manufactured in the 1970s to capitalize off the punk movement and bring chaos to the UK youth – also alleged.Â
But, that’s not the point here.Â
One of the things that catapulted the Sex Pistols into fame (It surely wasn’t their “positive reputation” or “great” music) were their style choices. Style choices that were carefully curated by Vivienne Westwood, while she was laying down her own groundwork of what “dressing punk” truly meant. DIY clothes, leather fabric, pins, and “shocking” graphics expressed what Vivienne Westwood truly thought of punk fashion: A way to rebel against the system and say “fuck you” to fascism (I think we can all agree with that statement with our current political climate.).Â
This ideology was expressed through one of her more infamous designs called the “Destroy” t-shirt released in 1977. The t-shirt featured swastika designs, lyrics from the sex pistols, and the word DESTROY written above in bold ink. Though the shirt generated controversy for its usage of the swastika, and was meant to denounce fascism around the globe (Specifically the regime of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet).
Over time, Vivienne Westwood’s designs evolved past punk and began to focus on different aspects of history, such as the 18th century French craze for British dress (Vivienne Westwood, 2022), where the tartan montage that we know and love today, kicked off.Â
But how does this connect back to Nana? Well, here’s how: Before becoming a manga illustrator, Ai Yazawa, the creator of Nana, was enrolled in university for fashion. But after her work as a manga artist became serialized, she decided to drop out. Now, just because she dropped out doesn’t mean she stopped loving fashion.Â
The characters in Nana, specifically Nana Osaki were styled to match their personality and beliefs portrayed in the manga series. Nana Osaki was a self-proclaimed Punk. Not punk like a “pussy” or a “wimp”, but the punk ideologies that Vivienne Westwood stood for. Even though the anime (To my knowledge) never delved into her political ideologies, it was always shown in the anime that Nana deeply resonated with “rebelling against the status quo” and “self-determination”. Hence her obsession with the Vivienne Westwood brand and the Sex Pistols – specifically Sid Vicious (This is why she was so toxic).
One of the main Vivienne Westwood pieces Nana O wore throughout the show was the “Armour Ring”. The armour ring was worn by Nana O as a way to protect herself from being hurt by anyone, since she struggled deeply with vulnerability and letting people go. The armour ring signified the sense of control she had on her life, in regards to her relationships, since itstood as a physical barrier/a reminder that allowing people to get close to her could be an ill mistake since “everyone always leaves” or “people aren’t to be trusted”.
Aside from specific pieces, Nana O has also been featured wearing clothes inspired from Vivienne Westwood’s 1993-1994 “Anglomania” collection, and the 1994 “Pour 3 Suisses collection.
Now, even though Nana Osaki is clearly our Vivienne Westwood icon, the collaboration between Nana and Vivienne Westwood has only been a book release so far. We can only hope that further down the line of this collaboration, we see clothes and accessories being released as well. Also, maybe, just maybe, we will see the Nana manga series be completed in the future (Ai Yazawa please finish it.). If you haven’t seen Nana, what the fuck are you doing? Go watch it!