MA Diary - Mini project

We started our mini project favourite label/product. We created our group of 8 people and got together to think about what we want to do. Finally, we all agreed on Vivienne Westwood and started researching into the topic. We all had to choose one subject to talk about and mine was about the philosophy and brand description ( part of it since a colleague and I split the task). I read a book about her and did some research online and I found a lot of material on the political involvement and controversies connected to the Westwood brand.

This is my material on the topic:

* Vivienne Westwood is as known for her fashion as she is known for the controversies she has created over the years.

Ever since Westwood began designing clothes with McLaren , she has used images that would provoke anger, hostility, or debate. In the 1970s, one of her best selling punk T-shirts had the words “DESTROY” on it and featured an inverted crucifix and a Nazi Swastika.

In 2005, Westwood designed shirts for one of Britain's largest civil rights groups, Liberty. The shirts bore the slogans, “I am not a terrorist. Please don’t arrest me.” and “Liberty throw away the key.” The shirts were designed in response to the British government's proposal to allow terrorist suspects to be detained for up to three months without being charged.

Westwood's activism is well known within the fashion industry. Her recent collections have had such names as Propaganda, Active Resistance, and Chaos, while her autumn/ winter collection, shown in Paris in February, was called +5o, a reference to the temperature Lovelock predicts the Earth will increase by when carbon dioxide exceeds certain levels in the atmosphere. The actor and pin-up Pamela Anderson modelled a logo T-shirt in the show and features in the ad campaign.

Though as a designer Westwood finds inspiration in art and historical costume, her sensibilities are rooted in the present, even the future: "We're all in it together. And what is the future if we don't do anything anyway?" Last year she launched her manifesto, "Active Resistance to Propaganda", which takes the form of an imagined confluence of characters as diverse as Aristotle, Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio, and focuses on the cultural and political inertia brought about by excessive consumption in modern life. 22 july 2009

In April 1989 Westwood appeared on the cover of Tatler dressed as then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, appearance that reportedly infuriated Thatcher.The cover, which bore the title "this woman was once a punk", has become memorable cover for the magazine and was included in The Guradian's list of the best ever UK magazine covers.

In a 2007 interview she spoke out against what she perceives as the "drug of consumerism". She created a manifesto of Active Resistance to Propaganda, which deals with the pursuit of art in relation to the human predicament and climate change. Against the claim that anti-consumerism and fashion contradict each other, she said in 2007 that "I don't feel comfortable defending my clothes. But if you've got the money to afford them, then buy something from me. Just don't buy too much".