While I’ve always admired Vivienne Westwood for her iconic designs, it’s her dedication to activism—particularly regarding the climate crisis—that truly inspires me. She was the embodiment of punk, and I hope that revolutionary spirit of the subculture is never lost.
I’ve gone down a rabbit hole, watching her TED Talks, reading her manifestos. Every thing she touches is full personality and passions. One thing I found really interesting was her use of symbols in her manifestos. She seems to place importance on symbols and iconography. Maybe it could be connected to her stance on art. Vivienne says, “if you become an art lover, it gives you strength. You have an anchor to fight things, you have a sense of personal progress.” Art calls for perspective, and for perspective, one must have culture. She explained in her TED Talk that she believes having different points of view has more value than knowledge gained from school, at least in terms of understanding the world. She believes culture helps us understand the world, and art helps us make sense of it.
Her work is very outwardly anti-capitalist. Anything produced under capitalism lacks perspective, lacks truth, lacks art. I like her notion that culture is a catalyst for change, and art the ideal medium. It promotes the idea that diversity is to be protected.
I watched a video titled “Vivienne Westwood on How Art can Save the World”, which sums up her ideals and manifesto perfectly. Here is a quote the video provided that I wrote down: “The value of art would be that it gives a sense of concrete reality which would arm us against the feeling of being adrift in chaos.” I love this quote because it reminds me of being lost in a feeling, and turning to art to resolve it, turning to art to give you a new perspective, a new feeling, thought, or idea. As Vivienne states, there is value in having different points of view. You can learn from others and begin to make changes to your own life. Art has the power to make change, and our humanity is what gives art that gift.
A world that thrives under the mass production of subpar products and mass exploitation of its resources is not sustainable. A world that stifles creativity and self-expression is not productive. Messages like these are important, especially now, and it is unfortunate that in her passing, Vivienne has yet to be widely recognized for her activism. I was happy to find everything was left behind on websites such as Westwood World and No Man’s Land. Of course, there are her interviews, documentaries, and not to mention her fashion archives. Not all is lost, but it isn’t really found. What initially made me fall in love with her is my love for fashion. She’s one of my favorite designers, if not for her aesthetic alone, her empathy and unbridled push for change has made her an icon in my eyes. I hope more people can see her as such.