St. John's Smith Square, Westminster. February 17th.
On Sunday, Vivienne Westwood has used once again the platform of fashion to speak up about climate change, Brexit, corruption, the role of the press and over-consumption. The garments, as beautiful as they are, are now a second priority to Vivienne’s increasingly important and urgent messages about what is happening in the world. She's telling her customers: 'Buy Less, Choose Well, Make It Last’, which is not a typical fashion designer message. She wants people to THINK and tell the children the truth, the same children that were in so many cities - including London - on Friday protesting about climate change. More and more, designers and fashion are conscious of the importance of a sustainable industry and Vivienne is clearly a leader in this movement.
The show was divided between two parts that changed every few minutes. Firstly there were speeches played by activists, artists or models such as Rose McGowan, Fred Harrison, Sara Stockbridge, Daniel Lismore, Emma Breschi, Hugo Hamlet and John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace. Then a second part, with the debut of the Fall Winter 2019 Collection where we saw prints like 'I love crap', 'Politicians R Criminals' or 'We sold our soul to consumption'. Vivienne is admirably brave putting political activism over economics again, as she has done all of her life.
