VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

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— I always high-jack my fashion shows to talk about culture and politics. The AW09/10 Gold Label collection is called +5°. Somewhere between 400 parts per million (ppm.) and 500 ppm. of CO² in the atmosphere the earth will settle down to a new equilibrium of +5° hotter than now. Our luscious comfortable world will be gone. What is left will support hopefully 1/5 of the present world population. The atmosphere is already 430 ppm. according to the measurements of James Lovelock. He originated the Gaia Theory and is the inventor of the machine which is capable of measuring atmospheric CO². We must plan. I am helping to form a focus group to face the problem on 2 levels: how do we prepare for a world to help survivors; just in case there is time to affect this irreversible event, what can we do?

Read James Lovelock. The present outlook is certainly something we didn’t expect.

James Lovelock in his lab. Image from COSMIC SEARCH: ISSUE 8 (VOL 2, #4; 1980)

Vivienne Westwood has been designing for almost 40 years. She first began in 1971 with partner Malcolm McLaren, showcasing their ideas from the shop at 430 Kings Road, London. Together the pair redefined street culture with punk, SEDITIONARIES and PIRATES which led to the New Romantic movement. In 2004, a major retrospective of her works was shown at the V&A in London. It was the largest exhibition of its kind put together for any living British designer. It subsequently toured the world for 5 years and was exhibited in over ten cities. In 2006, her contribution to fashion was officially recognised when she was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth the Second.

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