Vivienne Westwood on fashion and fracking, she's a fashion guru with a conscience
With
a surname like mine I’m used to people getting it wrong. I’ve had Blackshaw,
Blackman, Blacksmith, even Whitehurst. But never Blacklist. “This is Chris
Blacklist,” says Vivienne Westwood to a colleague. I have two goes at telling
her that’s not so, then give up. –
Perhaps it’s the background noise – we’re sitting on the
deck of HMS President moored on the Thames in the centre of London. More likely
it’s because Westwood has already moved on. It’s a detail that gets in the way
of what she really wants to talk about.
And that’s climate change and fracking.
“It’s terribly important we all speak with one voice,” she
says, as she sits down. “I’m in a terrible panic. We’re supposed to be calm and
not in a panic, but the western half of the Antarctic is in irreversible
meltdown. The ice is melting; the sea level will rise by four metres, 70
metres if all the ice caps melt. The immediate cause of that melting is now
happening. It’s enough to screw London.”
At 73, Westwood has lost none of her energy and anger. Sure,
she’s now a Dame, who has been in the fashion industry for 43 years, ever since
she and Malcolm McLaren opened the “Let It Rock” boutique in the King’s Road in
London (in 1974 it changed its name to “Sex”), and these days wears a hearing
aid. But beneath a cardigan she’s also wearing a global warming T-shirt,
showing the section of the world most at risk from climate change. Her
much-younger husband, Andreas Kronthaler, once her fashion student, now part of
her design team, and 25 years her junior, is standing nearby.
We’re here to mark the launch of Talk Fracking, the campaign
to raise awareness of the issues around fracking (www.talkfracking.org). It’s
backed by a host of celebrities – including Sir Paul McCartney, Helena
Bonham-Carter, Mariella Frostrup, Bianca Jagger and Russell Brand – some of
whom are with her today.
Westwood, too, has stayed faithful to her working-class
origins. She may have lived in London since she was 17, when she and her family
moved to Harrow, but her voice remains recognisably northern, from
Derbyshire.
Vivienne
Westwood at the Vivienne Westwood Man show at the London Collections: MEN AW13
at Harrods in London, England, 2013. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)
“We have to inform people about what is happening,” she
intones. “The situation is urgent. We need governments on board. They need to
be telling us that things are going to be very, very bad for the future of the
human race and that we must do something about it.”
She’s opposed to fracking on environmental grounds: damage
the drilling will do locally and the risks involved. But her main worry is how
fracking will lead to the production of yet more oil which will hasten climate
change.
“If we carry on like this, we’re looking at the mass
extinction of the human race within a short time.”
She points to her chest.
“I don’t know when the human race will disappear, but right
now I know it’s inevitable. Look, this T-shirt says ‘+5%’. If temperatures go
up 5 per cent, as they’re predicted to, everything below this line, the
world below Paris, will be uninhabitable. The heat will be unimaginable. No one
will help each other, there will be war.”
Vivienne
Westwood sighting in London, England in 2012 (Photo by Olga Bermejo/FilmMagic)
But where’s the proof? What about climate-change sceptics?
She shakes her head furiously.
“Don’t believe them. I don’t think they believe what they’re
saying. They’ve got a vested interest. For 200 years we’ve had the status quo;
it’s a status quo of the minority who want to keep on making a profit.”
She’s on a roll. “Who are the people who run the world? I’ll
tell you, they’re the central banks like the Fed in America, the Bank for
International Settlements in Basle. They hand out debt and they must be paid
back the interest. How often do you hear of a Third World country where the
people are forced to borrow money and then pay back the interest in the form of
raw materials? The central banks control this.”
Westwood can see a conspiracy at work with fracking.
“They know they’re not going to get anything to help us with
our energy needs, that’s why they’re doing fracking. They’ve got to be seen to
be doing something, they have to be seen to be drilling. But they know it won’t
work.”
Bianca Jagger walks by. They exchange waves.
Groans Westwood: “Why is it only me and Bianca who are so
desperate? There could be loads of us, but the government and NGOs
(non-governmental organisations) are very good at misinforming.”
On fracking, says Westwood, “there’s no democratic mandate
to do it. David Cameron said he was going to create the greenest government
ever – then look at what he does.”
It’s significant, she maintains, that major oil corporations
have stayed away.
“Why are they on the side-lines? Because they know it’s
expensive and won’t work. The fact the very businesses involved in the oil
industry are not investing in this technology tells you everything.”
She can see what’s going on, alright. If only others saw the
same.
“What’s so depressing is the inability of nations to work
together. We could co-operate with Europe, instead of all this arguing and
fighting.”
Instead, “there’s no co-operation, and what is occurring is
irreversible. The scientific evidence for global warming is unarguable, yet the
climate-change disbelievers keep wanting a debate. There shouldn’t be a debate,
there’s nothing to debate.”
What she’d like to see is a commitment towards a green
economy. “What’s good for the planet is good for people; what’s good for people
is good for the planet.”
But we seem to be moving further away from that idea.
“Look at what’s happening in London. I read the other day
they’re pulling down flats at Elephant & Castle and replacing them with
luxury apartments,” she says.
“Where do the people who live there go? Where are they going
to live? We could have more nurses, more teachers, but they won’t be able to
afford to live there.”
Hang on, does she not work in an industry that is all about
coveting a label and luxury, where ordinary people are excluded? She nods.
“There are signs in my shops that say ‘buy less, choose
well, make it last’. I agree, fashion is a terrible thing, it’s all about
tempting to buy. But they should buy less.”
Meanwhile, she says, “fashion gives me a voice, it gives me
prestige”. She laughs. “It’s another reason why I don’t retire, don’t close the
company and give up.”
She’s been raging pretty much all her life.
“I first became interested in anarchy because the world was
so wrong, and I thought the kids should do something, that they shouldn’t
believe what the government told them. I was with the hippies first, then punk.
Today’s kids have the same attitude, but they’re lazy – they don’t know what is
wrong. They think they do but they don’t want to find out.”
Take fracking.
“If people bothered to find out about fracking they would be
against it.”
She’s not entirely despairing, however. “Naomi Klein is
saying that the environmental crisis can force us to have the world we want, if
only we had the true aim of combating it.”
She comes in close, putting a hand to her head and lowering
her voice.
“I had a bang the other day, I banged my head, and I had a
lump. My man,” she says, gesturing towards Andreas, “he’s a witch, he got rid
of it.”
He’s a what? “A witch.”
How did he do that? “I don’t know, he just did it.”
She leans back. “You know, people think we’re better
informed and therefore better off, but we’re the least-informed people who have
ever lived. Hopefully, there’s still time…”
The past has always been an influence on her, never more
than now.
“Do you know what the greatest civilisation that ever
existed was?”
Before I can answer, she says: “The Chinese until 1911, the
last dynasty. Chinese art is the high point of existence. Their culture and
politics sustained, unchanged, for a thousand years. The people who ran the
country had to pass exams to show they were cultured.”
She laughs. “I wish our politicians had to pass an exam to
show they were cultured.”
At present, she says, “business is good”. (Latest accounts
disclose annual profits of £5m.) “If anything, I want to reduce my product
range, to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
“I might have to put up prices and see what happens.”
Even so, she must be thinking of retirement?
“No. But what I am doing is trying to stay calm. I’m not
very optimistic about the future of the human race. I wish I was, but I’m not.”
Bianca Jagger comes to join her. We’re done. As I leave,
they’re already in a huddle, planning the next stage of their attempt to save
us from ourselves.
‘Who runs the world? I’ll tell you...’
Vivienne Westwood on fashion and fracking, she's a fashion guru with a conscience
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/style/fashion/fashion-news/who-runs-the-world-ill-tell-you-30339203.html#sthash.BpMjndrO.dpuf‘Who runs the world? I’ll tell you...’
Vivienne Westwood on fashion and fracking, she's a fashion guru with a conscience
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/style/fashion/fashion-news/who-runs-the-world-ill-tell-you-30339203.html#sthash.BpMjndrO.dpuf
‘Who runs the world? I’ll tell you...’
Vivienne Westwood on fashion and fracking, she's a fashion guru with a conscience
With
a surname like mine I’m used to people getting it wrong. I’ve had Blackshaw,
Blackman, Blacksmith, even Whitehurst. But never Blacklist. “This is Chris
Blacklist,” says Vivienne Westwood to a colleague. I have two goes at telling
her that’s not so, then give up. –
Perhaps it’s the background noise – we’re sitting on the
deck of HMS President moored on the Thames in the centre of London. More likely
it’s because Westwood has already moved on. It’s a detail that gets in the way
of what she really wants to talk about.
And that’s climate change and fracking.
“It’s terribly important we all speak with one voice,” she
says, as she sits down. “I’m in a terrible panic. We’re supposed to be calm and
not in a panic, but the western half of the Antarctic is in irreversible
meltdown. The ice is melting; the sea level will rise by four metres, 70
metres if all the ice caps melt. The immediate cause of that melting is now
happening. It’s enough to screw London.”
At 73, Westwood has lost none of her energy and anger. Sure,
she’s now a Dame, who has been in the fashion industry for 43 years, ever since
she and Malcolm McLaren opened the “Let It Rock” boutique in the King’s Road in
London (in 1974 it changed its name to “Sex”), and these days wears a hearing
aid. But beneath a cardigan she’s also wearing a global warming T-shirt,
showing the section of the world most at risk from climate change. Her
much-younger husband, Andreas Kronthaler, once her fashion student, now part of
her design team, and 25 years her junior, is standing nearby.
We’re here to mark the launch of Talk Fracking, the campaign
to raise awareness of the issues around fracking (www.talkfracking.org). It’s
backed by a host of celebrities – including Sir Paul McCartney, Helena
Bonham-Carter, Mariella Frostrup, Bianca Jagger and Russell Brand – some of
whom are with her today.
Westwood, too, has stayed faithful to her working-class
origins. She may have lived in London since she was 17, when she and her family
moved to Harrow, but her voice remains recognisably northern, from
Derbyshire.
Vivienne
Westwood at the Vivienne Westwood Man show at the London Collections: MEN AW13
at Harrods in London, England, 2013. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)
“We have to inform people about what is happening,” she
intones. “The situation is urgent. We need governments on board. They need to
be telling us that things are going to be very, very bad for the future of the
human race and that we must do something about it.”
She’s opposed to fracking on environmental grounds: damage
the drilling will do locally and the risks involved. But her main worry is how
fracking will lead to the production of yet more oil which will hasten climate
change.
“If we carry on like this, we’re looking at the mass
extinction of the human race within a short time.”
She points to her chest.
“I don’t know when the human race will disappear, but right
now I know it’s inevitable. Look, this T-shirt says ‘+5%’. If temperatures go
up 5 per cent, as they’re predicted to, everything below this line, the
world below Paris, will be uninhabitable. The heat will be unimaginable. No one
will help each other, there will be war.”
Vivienne
Westwood sighting in London, England in 2012 (Photo by Olga Bermejo/FilmMagic)
But where’s the proof? What about climate-change sceptics?
She shakes her head furiously.
“Don’t believe them. I don’t think they believe what they’re
saying. They’ve got a vested interest. For 200 years we’ve had the status quo;
it’s a status quo of the minority who want to keep on making a profit.”
She’s on a roll. “Who are the people who run the world? I’ll
tell you, they’re the central banks like the Fed in America, the Bank for
International Settlements in Basle. They hand out debt and they must be paid
back the interest. How often do you hear of a Third World country where the
people are forced to borrow money and then pay back the interest in the form of
raw materials? The central banks control this.”
Westwood can see a conspiracy at work with fracking.
“They know they’re not going to get anything to help us with
our energy needs, that’s why they’re doing fracking. They’ve got to be seen to
be doing something, they have to be seen to be drilling. But they know it won’t
work.”
Bianca Jagger walks by. They exchange waves.
Groans Westwood: “Why is it only me and Bianca who are so
desperate? There could be loads of us, but the government and NGOs
(non-governmental organisations) are very good at misinforming.”
On fracking, says Westwood, “there’s no democratic mandate
to do it. David Cameron said he was going to create the greenest government
ever – then look at what he does.”
It’s significant, she maintains, that major oil corporations
have stayed away.
“Why are they on the side-lines? Because they know it’s
expensive and won’t work. The fact the very businesses involved in the oil
industry are not investing in this technology tells you everything.”
She can see what’s going on, alright. If only others saw the
same.
“What’s so depressing is the inability of nations to work
together. We could co-operate with Europe, instead of all this arguing and
fighting.”
Instead, “there’s no co-operation, and what is occurring is
irreversible. The scientific evidence for global warming is unarguable, yet the
climate-change disbelievers keep wanting a debate. There shouldn’t be a debate,
there’s nothing to debate.”
What she’d like to see is a commitment towards a green
economy. “What’s good for the planet is good for people; what’s good for people
is good for the planet.”
But we seem to be moving further away from that idea.
“Look at what’s happening in London. I read the other day
they’re pulling down flats at Elephant & Castle and replacing them with
luxury apartments,” she says.
“Where do the people who live there go? Where are they going
to live? We could have more nurses, more teachers, but they won’t be able to
afford to live there.”
Hang on, does she not work in an industry that is all about
coveting a label and luxury, where ordinary people are excluded? She nods.
“There are signs in my shops that say ‘buy less, choose
well, make it last’. I agree, fashion is a terrible thing, it’s all about
tempting to buy. But they should buy less.”
Meanwhile, she says, “fashion gives me a voice, it gives me
prestige”. She laughs. “It’s another reason why I don’t retire, don’t close the
company and give up.”
She’s been raging pretty much all her life.
“I first became interested in anarchy because the world was
so wrong, and I thought the kids should do something, that they shouldn’t
believe what the government told them. I was with the hippies first, then punk.
Today’s kids have the same attitude, but they’re lazy – they don’t know what is
wrong. They think they do but they don’t want to find out.”
Take fracking.
“If people bothered to find out about fracking they would be
against it.”
She’s not entirely despairing, however. “Naomi Klein is
saying that the environmental crisis can force us to have the world we want, if
only we had the true aim of combating it.”
She comes in close, putting a hand to her head and lowering
her voice.
“I had a bang the other day, I banged my head, and I had a
lump. My man,” she says, gesturing towards Andreas, “he’s a witch, he got rid
of it.”
He’s a what? “A witch.”
How did he do that? “I don’t know, he just did it.”
She leans back. “You know, people think we’re better
informed and therefore better off, but we’re the least-informed people who have
ever lived. Hopefully, there’s still time…”
The past has always been an influence on her, never more
than now.
“Do you know what the greatest civilisation that ever
existed was?”
Before I can answer, she says: “The Chinese until 1911, the
last dynasty. Chinese art is the high point of existence. Their culture and
politics sustained, unchanged, for a thousand years. The people who ran the
country had to pass exams to show they were cultured.”
She laughs. “I wish our politicians had to pass an exam to
show they were cultured.”
At present, she says, “business is good”. (Latest accounts
disclose annual profits of £5m.) “If anything, I want to reduce my product
range, to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
“I might have to put up prices and see what happens.”
Even so, she must be thinking of retirement?
“No. But what I am doing is trying to stay calm. I’m not
very optimistic about the future of the human race. I wish I was, but I’m not.”
Bianca Jagger comes to join her. We’re done. As I leave,
they’re already in a huddle, planning the next stage of their attempt to save
us from ourselves.
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