Vivienne Westwood Quotes & Sayings

How impossible it is for us to imagine ourselves victims of disaster. We suffer for the poor people who were thrown into the sea from their cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany, some losing their lives. Imagine a world of accelerating natural disasters, one after the other so that nobody can help anyone else. — Vivienne Westwood

I think it is terribly important to have opinions, and to think. We live in a world of action without thought. — Vivienne Westwood

The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas. — Vivienne Westwood

I didn't do anything at the Queen, whom I admire. — Vivienne Westwood

My son has followed fashion since he was a punk. He and I agree that fashion is about sex. — Vivienne Westwood

The main message of Climate Revolution is that climate change is caused by the rotten financial system we've got, designed to create poverty and rip off any profits for a small amount of rich people. Meanwhile, it destroys the earth. — Vivienne Westwood

My clothes have a story. They have an identity. They have a character and a purpose. That's why they become classics. Because they keep on telling a story. They are still telling it. — Vivienne Westwood

What I remember as a child is that other kids didn't care about suffering. I always did. — Vivienne Westwood

I always thought we had an environmental problem, but I hadn't realized how urgent it was. James Lovelock writes that by the end of this century there will be one billion people left. — Vivienne Westwood

I don't follow politics much. — Vivienne Westwood

It is all about technique. The great mistake of this century is to put inspiration and creativity first. — Vivienne Westwood

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It's always sexy, and it's always with the same result: making women look fantastic. — Vivienne Westwood

Being part of a community with a church at its centre and singin' hymns is a great thing to do. — Vivienne Westwood

I may be a rebel, but I am not an outsider. — Vivienne Westwood

Women fight for democracy and engage in the world. But they shouldn't try and be copying men and be masculine; they should anchor on the home and build on those fundamentals. — Vivienne Westwood

However, because Britain is young and exciting, I did show my second line here once or twice. — Vivienne Westwood

I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make - and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn't quite work. — Vivienne Westwood

Instead of buying six things, buy one thing that you really like. Don't keep buying just for the sake of it. — Vivienne Westwood

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world. — Vivienne Westwood

I think dress, hairstyle and make-up are the crucial factors in projecting an attractive persona and give one the chance to enhance one's best physical features. — Vivienne Westwood

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great. — Vivienne Westwood

If we didn't have the Chinese buying things, we'd be on the floor. — Vivienne Westwood

If you wear clothes that don't suit you, you're a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better. — Vivienne Westwood

Why do people think that if you don't dress up, others will appreciate your beauty more - that style will somehow emanate from you? It's rubbish. If you dress up it helps your personality to emerge - if you choose well — Vivienne Westwood

I design things to help people to hopefully express their personality. — Vivienne Westwood

I didn't want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn't like it. I always wanted to do other things. — Vivienne Westwood

Wear a towel instead of a coat, it's very chic. Or your husband's boxer shorts with a belt, or something from your grandmother. It's all about do-it-yourself at the moment. — Vivienne Westwood

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. — Vivienne Westwood

My beauty secret is absolutely no sun. — Vivienne Westwood

Even though it was the 70s, we found old stocks of clothes that had never been worn from the 50s and took them apart. I started to teach myself how to make clothes from that kind of formula. — Vivienne Westwood

Fashion has become so whatever. I don't think there are any stones left to unturn. — Vivienne Westwood

A status symbol is a book. A very easy book to read is The Catcher in the Rye. Walk around with that under your arm, kids. That is status. — Vivienne Westwood

We wanted to step off our island and add the color of the third world. We got gold cigarette paper and stuck it around our teeth. We really did look like pirates and dressed to look the part. — Vivienne Westwood

I don't think punk fashion is a specter or overemphasized - it made a big impression, as there had never been anything like it before. — Vivienne Westwood

More people should read books. It's the most concentrated experience you can have. — Vivienne Westwood

The sexiest people are thinkers. — Vivienne Westwood

The French have got taste. — Vivienne Westwood

I was so upset with what was going on in the world. I just couldn't stand the idea of being people tortured and that we even had such a thing as war. I hated the older generation, who had not done anything about it. Punk was a call-to-arms for me. — Vivienne Westwood

I'm different from any other designer, businesswise, in that I've built this company up and I own it. I never had business hype behind me to promote my image ... My image is real ... I have never had marketing people telling me what to do. — Vivienne Westwood

I like to literally put women on a pedestal — Vivienne Westwood

The orb came about because I wanted to do this kitsch sweater for Prince Charles when he went hunting and fishing with his kilt on. — Vivienne Westwood

The thing that makes my clothes really different is that, number one, they are really great designs; they're not tacky; they are very professional; the design is made from lots of decisions. — Vivienne Westwood

Every time I hear that word, I cringe. Fun! I think it's disgusting; it's just running around. It's not my idea of pleasure. — Vivienne Westwood

The age in which we live, this non-stop distraction, is making it more impossible for the young generation to ever have the curiosity or discipline ... because you need to be alone to find out anything. — Vivienne Westwood

Every time I have to look up a word in the dictionary, I'm delighted. — Vivienne Westwood

I have too much product, and I'm trying to rein it in and sell more of my main collection. I wish you didn't have to design so often; it would be good if you could keep on selling the same things for a few years and not have to do new things all the time. — Vivienne Westwood

I have always loved the Mao cap, though I hate violent revolution. — Vivienne Westwood

There is so much that people take for granted. — Vivienne Westwood

I'll tell you what I was like as a child. I was a good person. I was high-spirited but I was a big reader. — Vivienne Westwood

I'm a fashion designer and people think, what do I know? — Vivienne Westwood

It is extremely difficult to say how long the process actually took to finally achieve my fragrance, Boudoir, because there was a lot of time waiting around for other people. — Vivienne Westwood

Our economic system, run for profit and waste and based primarily on the extractive industries, is the cause of climate change. We have wasted the earth's treasure and we can no longer exploit it cheaply. — Vivienne Westwood

If you hear Anarchy in the UK today your hair stands on end. It gives you the shivers. — Vivienne Westwood

The fight is no longer between the classes or between rich and poor but between the idiots and the eco-conscious. — Vivienne Westwood

When I'm in the street, the only people I notice are usually at least 70 years old, because they look really stylish. — Vivienne Westwood

I remember reading a book set in the future, it was written in the 1870s projecting to 1920, and this time traveler said you couldn't tell the difference between men and women. He saw what was coming. — Vivienne Westwood

I'm always attracted to people who interest me. They've got to be people who are really true to themselves somehow, and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting, or better, or something for somebody else. They're interested in people. — Vivienne Westwood

I do not approve of museums trying just to get people to come in. Whistler was very, very clear on this. — Vivienne Westwood

I think feminists are unaware of the tremendous extent of the role of women in history. — Vivienne Westwood

I have certain signatures, certain cutting principles. It could be a raw-edged seam; it could be leaving the lining of sheepskin exposed so it's not perfectly finished. I invent new ways to do it, but the end goal is always the same. — Vivienne Westwood

I think that feminists have definitely underestimated the role that women have had historically. I think I would be insecure if I were to be a man; there's so much pressure on you. — Vivienne Westwood

There's always a polemic in my clothes. — Vivienne Westwood

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records. — Vivienne Westwood

Save the rainforest for your loved ones — Vivienne Westwood

It's a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world. — Vivienne Westwood

I don't care if you get up in the morning and don't wash, don't put any make-up on, don't do your hair, even, but you have to have clothes if you want to look different. — Vivienne Westwood

If you saw Queen Elizabeth it would be amazing, she came from another planet. She was so attractive in what she was wearing. — Vivienne Westwood

In history people dressed much better than we do today. — Vivienne Westwood

I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics. Because I'm a fashion designer, it gives me a voice, which is really good. — Vivienne Westwood

I am always trying to find fabrics that are more friendly to the environment - working with Virgin Atlantic, they managed to research into this and find more eco fabrics. — Vivienne Westwood

Liverpool people are famous for liking clothes and fashion; they are very social and lively people, and we know that they like clothes. — Vivienne Westwood

The last people with any ideas are young people. — Vivienne Westwood

The young Japanese, especially, love to wear the latest thing and when they come to London they head for my shops as part of what they want to find in Britain. — Vivienne Westwood

The capitalist system is about taking from the Earth and from the other great commodity, labour. What's happening with this system is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the only way out of it is supposed to be growth. But growth is debt. It's going to make the situation worse. — Vivienne Westwood

Feminists wish women to seem like men. They're not men. — Vivienne Westwood

I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them - they are individual and stylish. — Vivienne Westwood

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don't understand. — Vivienne Westwood

The best fashion accessory is a book. — Vivienne Westwood

Buy less, choose well: that's the maxim. Quality not quantity. That's the most environmentally friendly thing you can do. — Vivienne Westwood

We based the look on rock 'n roll right from the beginning. — Vivienne Westwood

Britishness is just a way of putting things together and a certain don't care attitude about clothes. You don't care, you just do it and it looks great. — Vivienne Westwood

But, the thing is, since I always had my own little shop and direct access to the public, I've been able to build up a technique without marketing people ever telling me what the public wants. — Vivienne Westwood

Economists treat economics as if it is a pure science divorced from the facts of life. The result of this false accountancy is a willful confusion under cover of which industry wreaks its havoc scot-free and ignores the environmental cost. — Vivienne Westwood

I do have reasons for what I do. I am a very political person, and I really think if you put these clothes on, you will look like a force to be reckoned with. — Vivienne Westwood

I used to always fight for human rights. I still fight for Leonard Peltier, who's spent 35 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. — Vivienne Westwood

Buy less, choose well & do it yourself! — Vivienne Westwood

If you ask me what I think people should be getting next season, I'll tell you what I'd like them to buy - nothing. I'd like people to stop buying and buying and buying. — Vivienne Westwood

Intelligence is composed mostly of imagination, insight, things that have nothing to do with reason. — Vivienne Westwood

I talk to fashion designers and say I want some money to save the rainforest, and they say, 'Oh, I agree with you completely Vivienne. Yes, climate change, it's definitely happening,' but they don't feel that they can do anything about it; they don't even think 'Well let's stop it!' — Vivienne Westwood

Nothing is costed properly and it's destroying the earth. We need to re-educate people that what is good for the planet is good for the financial system. — Vivienne Westwood

Print some money and give it to us for the rain forests. — Vivienne Westwood

I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle. — Vivienne Westwood

I eat only vegetables and fruit, and to me it's the most aspirational diet because it's so easy. It's quite simple, the cooking I do. — Vivienne Westwood

It's better to look important than sexy. — Vivienne Westwood

I'm frugal. I'm not a very acquisitive woman. I never waste food. If you prepare your own food, you engage with the world, it tastes alive. It tastes good. — Vivienne Westwood

I was a punk before it got its name. I had that hairstyle and purple lipstick. — Vivienne Westwood

I don't have faith in young people any more. I don't waste time trying to communicate with them. — Vivienne Westwood

Buy less, choose well & do it yourself! — Vivienne Westwood

It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity. — Vivienne Westwood

Don't just eat McDonald's, get something a bit better. Eat a salad. That's what fashion is. It's something that is a bit better. — Vivienne Westwood