INTERVIEW

46

Vivienne Westwood:

“MY CLOTHES GIVE YOU CLOUT!”

INTERVIEW

47

THE BRIT DESIGNER WITH A PENCHANT FOR POLITICS IS MARCHING TO THE MIDDLE EAST.

GRAZIA STANDS TO ATTENTION

WHAT MAKES YOUR DESIGNS SO DESIRABLEMy clothes are uncompromising in the sense that they are not trying to sell themselves to you. If you want them, they make you incredibly strong. But they are not asking you to want them. When you wear them they say about you, ‘I’m something to be reckoned with – take it or leave it’.

IS IT HARDER TO SELL CLOTHES DURING THE CREDIT CRUNCHI don’t really know too much about the ins and outs of luxury goods and economic markets, but I do know that I make clothes that are supposed to last forever. I hope if someone is going to buy a Westwood item, it’s for life.

SHE CREATED ONE OF THE MOST ENDURING IMAGES OF 2008, COURTESY OF CARRIE BRADSHAW’S LAVISH WEDDING DRESS IN SEX & THE CITY: THE MOVIE – only to dismiss the whole thing shortly afterwards, telling reporters, “I thought Sex & the City was supposed to be about cutting-edge fashion. There was nothing remotely memorable or interesting about what I saw. I left after 10 minutes.”

Known in equal parts for her cutting-edge creations and her outspoken views on everything from the environment to prisoners’ rights, Vivienne Westwood – Dame Vivienne, to give her proper title – has been stirring up the fashion scene since she started selling clothes in the 1970s.

The combination of couture and conscience has proven a heady one; embodied, quite literally in the beanie hat she’s taken to wearing, emblazoned with the word ‘Chaos’ – the title of the last collection the 57-year-old produced for her semi-couture line Gold Label.

This week, as she shows her Red Label at London Fashion Week, while gearing up to launch her first standalone store in the Middle East, which opens for business in The Gate Village at DIFC this autumn, the outspoken designer tells Grazia why wearing Westwood makes more than just a fashion statement.

The Vivienne Westwood dress designed for

SJP in Sex & The City: The Movie stole the show

Wor

ds: N

ikki

Gor

don/

IFA

Pho

tos:

Get

ty Im

ages

, Gra

zian

o A

ntar

Fer

rari

CHAOS THEORY Vivienne Westwood salutes a new way of shopping (and thinking)

48

INTERVIEW

IS FAST FASHION OVER Someone once asked me what anyone should buy this season and I replied, ‘People should buy nothing.’ What I meant was that they should stop to think about what they really want, removing themselves from the incessant bombardment of propaganda.

WHY THE ‘CHAOS’ BEANIE HATThe title of my last Gold Label show was Chaos Point. Scientists have warned that ecological crisis has reached tipping point and the destruction is now irreversible. Others believe the response of human beings to the crisis can save us provided enough of us wake up to the emergency. The Chaos symbol means that nothing is predictable because all the old patterns of life have gone haywire and only humans can now steer the planet to avert the ecological crisis. We only have a few years to guide our spaceship, Earth, before it tips out of control.

AS WELL AS THE ENVIRONMENT, YOU CAMPAIGN FOR FREEDOM FROM GOVERNMENT CONTROL Arbitrary arrest happened in Stalin’s Russia and was once the prerogative of kings, which in England led to Charles I having his head cut off: it is the mark of tyranny. We are all at risk from government. Anyone can be picked up and punished with an indefinitecontrol order, without trial, never having had the chance, adequately, to defend themselves.

DOES SOMEONE MAKE A POLITICAL COMMENT BY WEARING WESTWOOD DESIGNS They project your personality, and are theatrical in the sense that they are real clothes, well designed, but they give you a chance to express yourself. They are inviting – people respond to them and want to talk to you. The added bonus is, you are not going to be bothered by conservative types coming up to you, because they won’t.

DO YOU AIM TO EMPOWER WOMEN THROUGH DRESSMy clothes give people the power to make them feel sexy – after all they are very feminine. But what is even more important is that they talk about the body in a way that makes you stand out. There is a relation between you and what you are wearing that is terribly interesting; you are doing something that you have never seen done before, and nobody else is wearing anything quite like it. They make you look and feel important. They give you clout.

WHAT IS THE LEGACY OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT WITH SEX & THE CITYI have been delighted to notice recently how well young girls are dressing, and that they have clearly been inspired by the film.

SO GIRLS NEED TO DRESS BETTER, THENThe majority of people on the street look quite dreadful. They are lazy in their dress and take no time to express themselves through clothes. Minimalism is a dominant force because people are so afraid of committing an error in taste. My clothes allow someone to be truly individual.

DO PROGRAMMES SUCH AS PROJECT RUNWAY HELP YOUNG DESIGNERSWe live in an age where young people are flatteredinto believing that they can do anything that they want. It’s not true. You have to have an aptitude for something. A talent for it. The only important discipline is self-discipline. Without technique, self-expression is impossible. ■

* Vivienne Westwood opens at The Gate Village in DIFC this autumn. The diffusion collection, Anglomania, is available at S*uce

Viv’s Picks

READ: Brave New World

by Aldous Huxley; Memoirs of Hadrian

by Marguerite Yourcenar;

Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert

APPRECIATE:My favourite painters are Titian, Velasquez

and also Vermeer. I particularly love

17th century Dutch painting. To look at the

paintings is to enter a world. It’s an

absolute delight.

Vivienne attends the funeral of Yves Saint Laurent, with her husband of 16-years, Andreas Kronthaler, who is 25-years her junior

Marrying politics with fashion in her A/W ’08 Gold label show