Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (2018) - full transcript

[dog barking]

[light jazz music]

- I think what you'll
have to let me do

is not ask me, is that the
first time you went to America?

Or anything like that,

I think you just
let me just talk

and just get it over
with, I think that's it,

and um cause if, you know
if you stop and I think

oh I've got to think
about that part of it now,

have I can't I just?

Do we have to cover every
bit of it, you know?



Anyway you know I will
get into it but it's so

boring to say all the.

[soft orchestral music]

I've got spacial intelligence.

As a child of five I could
have made a pair of shoes.

It's for a pocket, that's why
I drew me hand on it first.

Sometimes the question is put
to me, will you ever retire?

What I say is, if people
retire they do what they like,

and I'm doing what
I want in the sense

that I feel I ought to do it,

but if I really
could do what I want,

what I would do is I
would learn Chinese.

I mean I think that
that blue on there

is quite good actually, I
think just for a change,



I think it's fine
but the multi-color,

no not so good is it? Okay.

- And the hair, Vivienne?

- Sorry?

- And the hair, the black girl?

- No the hair looks lovely.

I like the hair.

And let's just try, how
with her hair taken back,

just to see if I
like that better?

I think she looks better, yeah.

- Just pushed back a
little bit further?

- Yeah, no I don't
like that at all.

No, take it off.

I don't remember doing this.

Fuck them, they're
just disgusting,

we did such a nice thing.

What's with this tiny hem?

How did that happen?

We decided we
wanted a small hem?

- Yes.

- Are you sure?

Why did I want a small hem?

- That's what I had taken
in my notes, saying here.

- [Vivienne] I actually told
you, put a small hem there?

I would never have said that.

- Just in the drawing it
was, so I just judged.

- Well next time
you make a judgment,

don't make a judgment.

Just get it into your
head, I like a big rib.

I don't like this tiny rib.

It's crap, I really
don't like it.

Anyway, so I don't know if I
want to show any of this shit,

and I don't know what
the fuck this is.

[soft acoustic guitar]

I don't know what I'm
doing, it's a mess.

It's my fault,
it's just not good.

- [Andreas] I think you
should not do this thing.

- I don't want to do it
anymore, but what do we do?

What do we about it?

Who does do it?

Let's just close the company.

It's quite interested at
doing it next season but,

when I look at that,

I don't know why it
turned out not good.

I like the princess coats.

Anyway I'm just totally
bored talking about this,

but you need it,
so I'll tell you.

From the age of 11, 12,
I made my own clothes.

When I was little I saw a
picture of the crucifixion,

and it really did
change my life.

And I thought to myself,

my parents, they've
been deceiving me.

They've told me all
about baby Jesus but they

never told me what
happened to him.

And I just thought, I can't
trust the people in this world,

I've got to find out for myself,

this kind of thing can't happen.

I did feel that I had to
be like a knight to stop

people doing terrible
things to each other.

And I think that that's
had something to do with

my fashion clothes as well,
it's always got to be that.

You know you've
got to cut a figure

and be prepared for action,

and engagement, with things.

[solemn orchestral music]

And just before I was 17,
my art teacher Mister Bell,

he had the idea that I
should go to art school.

I stayed at art school
for the term only,

because we were
so working class,

it was like, how am I
going to earn my living?

And so then I thought, I know,

I will go to teacher
training college

and take art as my main subject

and I'll try to be an artist.

And then if I can't be an artist
I can be a school teacher.

And that's what I decided to do.

We had bee hives
then, 60's was coming,

white shoes, oh
God I loved them.

With little lace-ups,
like a nurse.

Oh they were, they
were fantastic.

Rock and roll was just starting,

and as a teenager
and wanted to do what

all the other
teenagers were doing,

that's where I met Derek
Westwood in the end, yeah.

He was a great dancer, that
Derek, a very good dancer.

- [Announcer] Back
from their honeymoon,

she and Tim are
headed for a life

of wedded bliss, they think.

- I grew up with
the idea that you're

supposed to stay with one man,

you're supposed to
find the one man.

What we were actually living
was the American Dream,

the housewife all smiling,
all lovely little hair style

and crisp with an apron
on and everything,

and hubby comes home,

and he's got ideal family
and somehow that's it,

that's all you see.

But the American
dream stops there.

I just realize, no no, it's
all a load of old rubbish,

what a lot of old
bollocks that is.

Somehow I had to explore,
I had to get out.

I got married when I was
21, and had Ben at 22,

and Derek and I split
up and mostly because

I was not my fulfilling
my potential to

understand something
about the world.

- I remember Malcolm turning up.

I sort of remember my
and mother and Malcolm

from when I was about five.

I remember,

we used to live in
a flat in The Oval,

near the cricket ground.

And Malcolm was very
hot-headed and quite young,

and he didn't want
children around him,

he didn't have much
patience for us.

- I stopped teaching, I had
two children, Joe and Ben.

Anyway Joe was Malcolm's
son and he was born,

Malcolm was ill,

and I looked after
him and that's how

it all began, I didn't
want him at all,

but I felt that I've misled
him by being too kind to him,

and when I had Joe I
wanted to have an abortion,

and I really wasn't
happy at all,

and one day I suddenly realized,

this man is gold,
what am I doing?

We went to Compendium Book Shop.

We went to the Marxist
shop in Chinatown.

He came from a Jewish family,

they knew the world.

I was really a
woman on a mission.

Because I knew I was stupid,

and I had to discover what
was going on in the world.

[rock and roll music]

Malcolm had the
idea of buying up

these old rock and roll records,

and he thought that he could
sell them to trendy people.

My favorite shop,
Mister Freedom,

was at 430 Kings Road,
that's still my shop.

That shop has got
really a lot of history,

it was the first
this, the first that.

Anyway, it wasn't
doing very well,

so the shop manager invited us

to have the back
half of the shop,

to sell our records in.

I borrowed some
money off my mother,

a hundred pound.

And um, that's when we
started also making clothes.

We called it, Let It Rock.

Every time we changed
the name of the shop,

we changed the
clothes, you know?

It's like doing a new
collection each time.

Malcolm had the idea
that we were going to

confront the
establishment through sex,

because he said, England
is the home of the flasher.

His slogan was, Rubber
Wear for the Office.

Was very clever, Malcolm,
literarily and everything,

except he never read anything.

Why the hell does
anybody need this?

Can't you get a bit of
old footage or something?

No you can't, no you
can't, I know that.

Anyway,

he was interested in
those 50's pin ups,

where you've got girls
who are just there,

they've just been washed up
by a ship wreck on the beach,

and they're all torn, you know?

I'm wearing something
torn right now,

it's really great this,

I'll get up later on, it's all
got this torn edge, love it.

- [Interviewer] Shall we
jump to the Sex Pistols,

and how they came about?

- No no, I can't be
bothered with them, either.

I don't know what
we're going to do.

Really, if I've got to
talk about the Sex Pistols.

- Have you finished?

- This is the Destroy
Muslin tee shirt.

It's one of the most
important pieces

that Westwood and
McLaren created.

The, the garment is
made from muslin.

The sleeves,

are very long and they
fold back and then,

this would clip on to here,

so making it

more wearable, but the
notion of distortion

of the sleeves,

it reminds one a little
bit of a straight jacket.

But it's really all
about the imagery.

So here you've got a swastika,

an inverted crucifix,

the word 'destroy', and
then lyrics for Sex Pistols,

I'm an Antichrist.

And what Westwood and
McLaren were doing

with these punk garments
was confronting society.

- We invented punk.

Malcolm had just come
back from America.

He'd been managing
The New York Dolls,

and he put together
a group, a pop group,

from our Saturday boy Glen,
and a couple of our costumers,

and Johnny Rotten was
quite a phenomenon,

and he hasn't changed

from being that
phenomenon unfortunately.

He should have changed
to something else by now.

Now then, my favorite shop
is the World's End Shop,

and we still sell stuff we
designed at the time of punk.

- Actually they
look good on you.

They do look good on you.

- [Vivienne] And every
time I design something,

it has to have a story,
it's got a character.

I think that that story is
part of a kind of a nostalgia

that people can tap into.

I mean things like
this are reminiscent

of Greek peasant costumes,
this little kilt,

and um, like the tartan,

for this jacket and everything,

and it's got, it's got an
old sort of feeling to it,

a little bit to do with
rather sort of bandits

in the countryside,
that kind of thing,

something that you
might have seen

at the Battle of Culloden,
something like that.

And I just think that 'cause
it's got such content in there,

and such a way to connect
with the human expression,

you know, how you
walk, how you talk,

you know, how you
attract people,

and I just think that that's
why my clothes are timeless.

- [Woman] Dame
Vivienne Westwood.

This is a lady whose global
popularity knows no bounds,

a Dame who personifies the
powerful and subversive

originality of British fashion.

Ladies and gentlemen,
may we present,

Dame Vivienne Westwood.

[upbeat orchestral music]

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- There's Vivienne, you know,

the fashion designer,

there is Vivienne,
the campaigner,

and there is Vivienne
the person, you know.

I like them all,
ever such a lot.

But I really like
Vivienne, the person.

I don't know why.

I'm so,

there is this word
love, you know?

In love with her?

I really don't know.

I really don't know.

I just, I don't know,

you know you speak about
the love of your life and,

I don't know is it,

was it lucky?

Was it not lucky, I don't know.

- [Photographer] Nice, yes.

- [Andreas] It
has never changed.

If anything, it became stronger
and stronger, the bond.

I like everything about her,

the smell, the way
the hair falls,

to every millimeter of her
little body, everything.

- The best compliment
I can pay Andreas,

is that I actually
like living with him

as much as being on my own.

I accepted a teaching job,

first in Austria,

because I did need the money.

The line is under the bust,

and then, it's coming
up here, in between.

And it's where I met Andreas.

And then Andreas came
with a group of students

from Vienna to England,

at the time when I was
doing a fashion show.

Of course I gave them seats
to watch this fashion show,

they were my students.

And at the end of it, Andreas,

I thought he was really cheeky,

he didn't say it was great,

he gave me the
idea that there was

a lot of room for improvement.

He stayed and he worked
on the next collection.

- It was the old studio,

and she just let me live there.

Dirty old place.

Every night when once they left,

I would, you know, get out
this piece of leopard fur,

under a table, and sleep
on it on the floor,

you know, all this mess.

I even had fleas at one point.

But it was very
romantic and it was,

and this place was full
of cardboard boxes,

and in these cardboard boxes

was all the archive and clothes,

and I would study
them and you know,

soon as everybody was
gone I would open them up

and look at these things and

you know I sometimes
would actually wear them,

and go out in them.

It was fantastic.

Yeah, it was heaven,
it was the real thing,

it was the thing I always
wanted, I just felt so happy.

I never went back.

- What is it?

It's changing before
me eyes anyway

I don't know what--

- It's a square, the back,
the front is a simple square,

which is just
draped a little bit.

On the front, just
a bit of nothing,

it's just thrown on
you a bit of cloth.

- [Vivienne] He straight away
started telling us what to do.

- Here, or it can just be here,
it's just a little square.

- It's an apron or a dress?

- It's an apron, but if
I pin it in the back.

- [Vivienne] He's so
passionate about things,

that you just have
to do what he says.

The people who had worked
with me for quite a bit

were very suspicious of him

and he had to be careful
and they're just thinking,

who does he think he is?

Telling us to do this
that and the other.

But they soon began to
realize how talented he was,

and so we all went
along with it.

- I suppose I have
to be honest and say

I think in the beginning
I was quite suspicious of

Andreas because, who's
this fucking guy?

I mean he looks a bit
kind of gay and he's,

I don't know, he kind
of wants to marry my mum

and he's half her age and,

you know what's all this about?

But all I can is that,

over the years that
they've been married,

it's been a huge relief to me,

that has allowed me
not to have to worry

about my mum at all,
because I know that he's,

he's absolutely besotted by her,

and um, you know thinks
of her and her wellbeing,

and looks after
her in many ways.

And that was a really
nice relief, actually.

- People didn't like
you for being a punk.

We wanted to undermine
the establishment.

The swastika, all these
things meant we don't

accept the values of
this older generation.

We hate it, we want to
destroy it, we don't want it.

We were, it was youth against
age, that's what it was.

But it had affected
fashion such a lot,

the hair styles even,

my spiky hair was in
vogue one one month later.

And I realized that
you weren't really

attacking the system at all.

It was being marketed
all the time.

I just realized that the
real marketing opportunity

was that the English
society could claim

how democratic and
how free they were

that somehow kids could
revolt as much as that.

In fact we weren't
attacking the establishment,

we were just part
of the distraction.

- So this fantastic ensemble
is from the pirate collection,

and it's one of the
first pieces that the

V and A acquired from
Vivienne Westwood.

It was from a time when the shop

had become known as World's End,

and Vivienne was experimenting
with historical dress.

- Like the snake print tunic,

or the square-toed shoes.

She'll take an idea
and then chew it over,

and shake it and shake it,

and come up with the most
extraordinary results.

- The whole collection
was absolutely joyful,

it was a kind of repost
to the darkness of punk.

She was introducing
color and pattern,

huge voluminous shirts,

clothing that was worn
by both men and women,

clothing that was not
about sexual identity,

but was simply about
enjoyment of life.

[funk rock music]

- I didn't consider myself
a fashion designer at all,

but I realized that
I was very talented,

and I felt that I
wanted people to know

that the stuff that was
on the Paris catwalk

had come from me.

And I just thought I must
get the benefit of this,

I must enter this business world

and start to really
sell the clothes

and present them to journalists

and be a fashion designer.

I realized that I could be.

- [Interviewer] What is a
self-confessed fashion anarchist

doing in bourgeois Paris anyway?

- You have to go
where you have to go,

you have to do what
you have to do,

and I certainly don't
want to be underground,

I want to be at a place of the
most focus that I can find.

Malcolm became
very jealous of me,

when I did fashion and he
went into the music business.

And he used to always pretend
that everything was him.

And I stayed with Malcolm

because I respected him

and had an incredible
loyalty to him,

but there came a point
where I sort of completely

outran Malcolm,
he'd stopped really.

His thinking had kind
of stayed where it was.

So I got intellectually
bored with Malcolm.

- Malcolm split from my mum,

and he was horrible
when he left.

He was all full of
tension, jealousy and,

I don't know, just wanted, he
was just one of them sort of

people that when they,
something changes like that

in their life, particularly
I think because Vivienne

had decided that it was over.

She couldn't bear it any longer,

and so he just turned into
a really horrible, spiteful

phase in his, trying
to smash everything up,

which he sort of did.

At a certain point it all
sort of turned to dust,

you know.

And so he went off
to Los Angeles to be

this kind of movie
producer, kind of thing,

you know and Mister
Big Bollocks,

and we were left in Clapham
trying to pick up the pieces.

[dog barking]

- Andreas and I work together.

We both work on the fashion.

And he's been amazing.

There's an awful
lot of work needed

from a fashion designer, and
Andreas does the half of it.

When you do a dress
you've got to work out

how to do everything, there's
every little decision.

You do it more than once.

Make her bust smaller,
I always keep asking.

Maybe it's got so small
because she's losing weight.

You do one first, then you
make it up in the real fabric.

- Yeah, a little bit
of padding is nice.

- [Vivienne] A
little bit of what?

- Shoulder pads.

- Then you decide how
you're going to sew it.

All the time you're
trying it on people.

- What do you think, Vivienne?

- [Vivienne] It's really good
now that you've done that.

- There is something here.

- He needs me all the time.

I consider myself at this point
in time, as his reference,

call it muse, I'm there
to say yes or no or,

I don't think we
should be doing that.

I think it would be
much better if we,

if we tried it this way or
whatever, this kind of thing.

- Honestly, everybody
knows Vivienne.

Vivienne, Vivienne, Vivienne.

My real first shock

when I first met
them back in 2010,

was the way that she was
working with Andreas,

at that time, 2010, or even
before, since he arrived,

nobody knew.

That was my real first shock.

It was like, wow, I thought
that she was the designer,

she was deciding everything, no.

She was working
like 50-50 with him.

- Good.

- [Vivienne] Do you think so?

- Yeah.

- 'Cause it needs
something in the back.

I don't like it all see-through.

- [Andreas] She can
have knickers on.

- Well she's got knickers on,

I just don't like
to see the knickers.

- [Andreas] I think there's
a tiny bit of cotton taff.

- [Vivienne] I mean
that's what you want,

that's exactly what you need,
a bit of cotton taffeta.

- Vivienne and Andreas work
in a very particular way,

and I think it's a
very old fashioned way,

but it's really how the great
couturiers have always worked.

They work with their hands.

You know, they work on the body.

It's very physical,
Vivienne's clothes really

have a rapport with
the body as a result.

- She's really an
old-style teacher.

He is a mess,

like a proper student art mess,

which from the mess, from
the chaos, he can create.

[light orchestral music]

- I like to give my best and

I question what I do constantly.

Of course there are days
where I'm quite content

and maybe happy with who
I am or what I've done,

but most of the time, not.

I'm really,

it's hard work.

- [Vivienne] I don't know,
I mean it quite suits

this sort of business suit
she's got on to start with.

- But if something
cleaner, then maybe?

- No I don't know,
but what's her second,

I mean I quite like her
hair scruffy as it is.

- I thought we did like
a weird Marilyn version

in like the scruffed
up be quite interesting

as well on her.

- Yeah I love that.

- A little cardigan
and drapey trousers.

- Ah, if she's got that.
- Like a jogging thing.

- All right that's nice,

then the clothes are
all right with that.

No, that's her first
look, that one.

Okay so we have to get
this outfit for Grace

and what I wanted to do,

somebody should tell
her, or I'll tell her,

I'm changing her
outfit where is she?

I'll find her.

Oh and we've got to
change your hair.

I'm going back to change
your hair, where is he?

Changing the hair.

- Everyone in this area,

you don't need to be standing
around here, move back.

If you're a dresser stand
right next to your rail.

[soft jazz music]

[crowd cheering]

- Carlo is funny, I
mean I don't know,

Carlo used to have a business
that was selling carpets,

and second hand watches,
and cars and things,

kind of hippy
trader kind of guy.

- I just happened to
need to stay in Italy

because that's where I was,

the producers were, and I was
designing in a space there,

and working with this
factory at, to begin with.

- When I was 22 I
was living in Rome,

and then she was
working in an Italian,

in a factory near Florence.

This factory was producing
the Mini-Crini collection,

and then when she went to
Paris to do the collection

I helped and I remember
being on the train

with all the kind
of final pieces

that had been done
at the last minute,

and I was sleeping on the seats.

And then the show
you know suddenly

there was this show in Paris
and it was just mind blowing.

The most beautiful things.

And all the spot shirts and

it was unlike anything else.

it was so, really
being part of that

you really felt like
you were at the,

you know it was
something germinating

and it just kept on and on.

And yes it was wonderful.

- Carlo had got a couple of

really good
opportunities for me,

but they were
destroyed by Malcolm,

saying, you can't work with
this woman, she's my partner.

Your agreement with
her is totally rubbish.

You're wasting your
money, you know,

I'm going to take you to court.

It was that, I'd
forgotten Malcolm by then.

- When those things
fell through,

I found myself back in England,

and at that point I had to
go and get social security,

I didn't have any money at all.

- I think we got a loan
from my grandmother,

Vivienne's mother Dora,

because The World's End Shop
had just been closed for

don't know, a year
and a half, two years,

something like that.

But the landlords hadn't
rented it to anybody else,

it was just still sitting there,

and even had a bit of stock
still left in the back.

- My grandfather had just died,

and my grandmother
was at a loose end,

so she came down to
London, so this was 1985.

She came down to London
and she worked here.

She'd worked in
her own shop before

so she knew what she was doing.

- [Joe] And Vivienne also
started to make a few things

on her old sewing machine
again, to put in the store.

- I had a driving
license and a car,

so I used to go and do,
pick up the rolls of fabric,

and go to shirt-makers
and go to,

the tailor up in Camden town.

- And we opened the store again,

and even when we
opened the store

for the first three months
it had no electric in it,

because that was all cut
off and was trying to

light the store with
candles and you know?

- I went back to London and
then I started as her assistant.

Malcolm would
behave really badly

and he'd made it very
very difficult for her,

and she just carried on working,

she was working from her flat,

and it was just the
two of us for a while.

Then Murray started working,

and all sorts of people came

but that was way before Andreas.

- I was 23 and I was a very
young sort of 23, I guess.

And I was so honored
to be, sort of,

it was a big deal for me.

It was in Camden town.

Carlo D'Amario used
to call it Bombay.

It was really great, it was
above an old carpet shop.

It was really rancid,
really rickety and old,

and I loved it.

[soft jazz music]

- You know the people
that were involved,

it was as if they discovered
the meaning of life,

and it was the meaning of life

and it's funny how clothes
can be so emotional,

the making of these, these
things that you put on,

and they make you able
to face the world,

and in a kind of you
know spectacular way.

- I had a success to start with,

but the way it works is
that when you are new

and you do something new,

then everybody's on to you,

of they've discovered
this new thing,

and they all want to discover
you all at the same time.

Then, you just get left,

and they want to know what's
the next latest thing,

that's how the English
press treated me.

I was always treated
well in Italy.

- I know every time you
do a collection they say,

crikey, Viv's blown it,
don't they? [laughter]

They say Viv's blown it,

we don't know whether
Viv's blown it this time

because this is the new
collection, what's it called?

- Well I'd like to describe it,

it's called Time Machine.

- Time Machine, here we go.

Tell us about this one then.

When she started,
people mocked her.

Are people supposed to laugh?

I mean they're
laughing. [laughter]

- I remember when she was
on the Terry Wogan Show,

everyone laughed, I mean they
didn't show the audience which

was literally everyone
was over about 80.

- If they don't stop laughing,

I shall tell the next
person not to come on.

- [Host] Oh dear,
you're not to laugh.

Is this a winter collection?

- Yeah,

and I've never met
this response before.

- It's like Vivienne
had been invited

on the show to be a joke.

It was like she almost
had to justify herself.

- You design these clothes,
not because they're witty,

but because you believe
they are attractive

and they make people
more attractive?

- Yeah, that's it, yeah.

- It was really made me furious,

but she didn't give a fuck.

She came out in the
end and she said,

oh that was just the best

reaction I've had since punk.

- And on that note, we
haven't upset you have we?

- No, no.

- Not in the least.

- Listen I don't mind, in
fact I'm quite pleased,

but I usually don't get
that kind of reaction,

it's a bit strange.

- Get this reaction,
ladies and gentlemen,

Vivienne Westwood.

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- But there was loads
and loads of that,

where she was always considered
this sort of joke, you know,

and in the end they
couldn't ignore her anymore.

[classical orchestral music]

- I can't remember at
what point the company

became successful,
but eventually it did.

I'm still not happy
with my company because

at this point in time,

it's actually expanded
too much for me.

Just the stripes are wrong,

that's why it's not fastened.

I'm in danger of not
being able to control

everything properly,

and I certainly don't need to
sell anything I don't like.

I don't know who's in charge
of this kind of thing.

Who's going to tell the factory
that this is unacceptable,

that's what I want to know,

I don't even know who
is going to tell them.

- Don't worry, I'll find out.

- It's very lucky
we tried it on,

otherwise nothing would
have happened with this.

I need to reduce my product,

and I'm having to
sort of pull it back

and rework things all the time,

so that nothing gets left,

so it gets tacky or it's done

in not a good way, or something.

And therefore I don't want
to expand because that,

that means I can't you
know look after the problem

that's close to me, well enough,

'cause I've got too many
things to deal with.

- This is Marcia who
of course hasn't been

introduced properly.

- Yeah, hello Marcia, I see.

- So she now is
responsible I've found for

selling this collection.

- Wait a minute Marcia, did you
sell it to Gregor yesterday?

- Yes we did.

- 'Cause he said you
didn't know anything,

the person who didn't
know your name,

but he said she
didn't understand the
collection at all,

so that's you, so
now I've interrupted.

What do you want
to tell me, Murray?

- I just wanted
to introduce you.

I mean I've been working
with Marcia today,

she's getting a lot
more informed now.

- Okay, and it's probably
not your fault at all,

you know, I mean but because--

No no, it's not just
that, it's just that

the connections aren't here.

- The company has grown,
it has become very big

and she can't just press a
button and undo all that.

She's got a duty to support
the people who are here,

who have worked for her.

And it's very difficult to just,

undo some of those decisions
that have been made,

not by her, by the way.

- You know, I
don't know anything

about the marketing
people, as I've said,

I don't know what they do.

I don't know what information
they need from me.

Maybe there should be
some way that these people

start to understand early on

what they're doing
with the collection.

I'm really really you
know just so frustrated

as to trying to find out
what the heck they're doing,

I mean they're wandering
about doing I think, damage.

I really don't know and
I'm still of that opinion.

I still haven't found
out what they do.

They explain to me ever
so patiently always

what they do, and I come
away and I don't know

what they've been
talking about really.

- I think some things
were not exactly how she

had envisaged them.

And we are tweaking the concept,

which is a normal thing.

A company has to have
some kind of growth plan,

but it's not about
world domination.

It is about your
visibility as a brand.

- [MC] We're honored
ma'am that you are able

to be with us this evening,

to present the 1990
Designer of the Year award.

- That fashion industry was
so against her from day one,

they never liked her,

and they didn't like to
see her kind of come up.

You know it was
embarrassing going to those

fashion award things
where they kept giving out

the Designer of the Year to
everybody else apart from her.

- Well, the winner,
Vivienne Westwood.

[audience cheering
and applauding]

- [MC] Designer of the
Year couldn't have gone to

anyone else this year other
than Vivienne Westwood.

The designers have made
their thoughts known

over the last couple of days,

and the fashion press have
positively demanded it.

- Good evening everyone.

- I think as a designer,
she's a loose cannon really.

Fashion needs continuity, and
an actual design philosophy,

which I don't think she has.

- [Interviewer] But is she good?

- Not in my opinion, no.

- [Joe] It just was
a joke, you know.

And in the end they had to
give it to her twice in a row,

because it was so fucking
embarrassing for them.

- And it's my pleasure
to announce that

the Designer of the Year is,

oh dear, Vivienne Westwood.

[audience applauding
and cheering]

- [MC] So far no
designer has been awarded

Designer of the
Year twice in a row,

but Vivienne Westwood
celebrated here tonight,

for her awesome
contribution to the British

and international fashion arena.

Long may they last.

- The best thing about
winning this award

is a personal thing, the
fact that one is appreciated.

- It's regarded as
something of a disgrace

in the fashion industry
that it's taken

20 years for Vivienne Westwood

to be given wider recognition,

and now that she has,

that no financial sponsors
had the courage to back her.

- Bring it up and
perhaps above the head.

It's nice and happy.

- So I don't know at what
point my company was a success,

and I think what it, I
would remember when it,

when it did become
a success it's true.

At one point we closed
our Davis Street shop

to give it a coat of paint
and we took a temporary shop

in Conduit Street,

but we really started
to make a lot of money

because we were on the
track where people passed,

we weren't out of the way.

And then sales increased
and we we built it up

from the real business of
actually selling clothes.

- [News Reporter]
Designer and activist

Dame Vivienne Westwood
joined Greenpeace today,

south of the North Pole,
aboard the ship Esperanza.

Alongside scientists,
she'll be observing

the impact of climate change
on the arctic environment.

- About 6 or 7 years ago
I read in The Guardian

an article by this amazing
scientist, James Lovelock,

and he said he thought by
the end of this century,

the 21st century,

he thought there would be
one billion people left.

You know it just
shocked me so much.

It just froze me and
I was traumatized,

so I realized that this
environmental problem

was of incredible
consuming urgency,

the human race facing
mass extinction,

and then of course the point is

what can we do to
save ourselves?

Throughout my life all
my motivation has been

because I've been so upset
about what can happen

to people in the world and
I've always been so lucky.

So everything became
the urgent need

to save the environment.

- So Vivienne came down today.

We've got this big climate
march on the 21st of September,

I know it clashes in
with Fashion Week.

She wants banners done.

The deadline is the
18th and was wondering,

was wondering if you could
kindly let your interns help us?

They need to be
there by the 18th.

- [Woman] How many do you need?

- [Woman] Ten really big
beautiful fracking banners.

- That's quite a lot.

- That is, that's what I
mean, I feel really bad.

- I'm going to put
democracy shining

over the top like rays of light,

because we don't have
any democracy in England.

- We have a different
approach in that she always

likes to give it this meaning,

and she likes when clothes
have this message, which I

think is good or not
good I'm not sure.

I'm sometimes bored by it but
then she shouldn't hear that.

I'm not very much bothered
about this you know?

It just needs to
look good and and

and and I need to like
it and I'm happy with it.

- She cares deeply
whether she's going to be

able to change the world,

to make it a better place.

We're looking at
everything we do and trying

to do less, but the most
sustainable thing you could do

is shut the company
down perhaps,

but actually of course we are
employing a lot of people and

and it's you've got
to do it in a more

sustainable way, that's
the answer really.

- This is the most amazing thing

I've ever thought of or said.

The awful rotten financial
system is the enemy,

it's like the hydra.

Don't start chopping off,

I shouldn't mention
chopping heads now

but we've got to kill the
machine that is destroying us.

The only way to
kill the machine,

is to change to a green economy,

which is a rich
economy, a fair economy,

so if we could get
everybody to switch

to a green energy company,

it would be the first
step in the green economy.

- Here, there is so many
things going on here.

There is like meetings,
meetings, and meetings.

Company meetings, the bags
meeting, shoes meetings.

And Vivienne she keeps
herself super-busy

with the climate revolution
and all the appointments

and the meetings
that she have, NGO,

blogs, website, so--

Maybe the collection can
be done in three days.

- I don't know.

Let's see how.

- This is so
important to realize,

to have a perspective on what
is going on on our planet.

[crowd cheering]

- [MC] Thank you,
Vivienne Westwood.

- To really hurry up now,

because now to cancel it is,

hari kari number five.

We work on it, we
don't even look at it.

It's not good.

- Andreas has been
having such a hard time.

He's so tired,

really and he's so upset.

Because it's just such
a hard work and he

hasn't had much help
from me and that's

made a big difference.

You know we used
to do it together,

but now I'm depending
on him to do it

mostly on his own really,

and it's too much for him.

It's really terrible
anyway so he's,

he's getting exhausted.

- Everything, everything
I asked you was not done.

They had no socks on.

I don't know why people
don't go downstairs

and get some socks
from the shop.

I mean it's just
they're five people.

- No, that's true
there was no socks,

and they were all-

- But they're downstairs.

One flight of stair down
there are some socks.

- But they all mix from the
gold label most of them.

- What do you mean mixed?

We had no socks.

You had 10 pairs of socks
you tried all the fitting on.

- And they were spring/summer.

- This I don't care.

You just need to go
downstairs in the shop

and get the socks.

I mean that's just thick.

Useless.

I do it myself next time.

- For the socks?

- For everything.

Anyway, you can go.

Do your washing.

- Okay.

- They're all in plastic bags.

Everything in
see-through plastic bags.

- You've just to think,
I've got a few seconds,

and I'm just going
to look great,

and in your head it should
be everybody loves me,

and I'm for today
I'm being grown up,

because I'm wearing
rather grown up clothes.

- Okay.

- And you can be a bad
child if you want as well,

if you want.

- You see a fashion
show and of course

you got the make up,
you got the crazy hair,

but at the same time, we
want to try to sell them.

So the day after,

we have what is that
the presentation,

to all our managers from
London, Paris, Milan,

LA, New York, and our
partner which they come from,

Japan, Taiwan,
China, South Korea,

and who else knows better
the collection than

Vivienne and Andreas?

Nobody else.

- Excuse me,

either come or go please,

either sit down or
fuck off yourselves.

Listen our shops,

I decided that

I want this company
to be one that

sells only things that I like

and unfortunately it's
expanded so quickly

and I'm awfully suspicious
that our expansion

has been based more on
quantity rather than quality.

I don't, I'm not interested
in the money, sorry.

And I know you are but
this is what I want,

I want people to buy
the best that we've got

and build their customers
and not expanding.

Anyway so,

that's not Andreas
is it, Andreas?

- You continue.

- Sorry?

- [Andreas] You continue.

- No no, I won't, I
was waiting for you.

- [Andreas] But it's
not my job to speak

in front of all these people.

- Well I thought it was, that's
what we've been waiting for.

Well, whose job is it then?

- The sales people.

- Okay.

- I don't know where
the sales people are.

Who sells this collection?

- Well last season we did
it ourselves and they're

probably expecting us to do
it again so there we are.

Anyway, what I really
love the feeling of

poverty about these
things, the neutral color,

and it's not in your face

it's just the woman.
- It's just not prepared.

Crazy.

- Looks absolutely great, sorry.

Okay, so there in
the collection,

there were one or two things

we didn't show, because
they didn't work.

I've just got to make
sure that we take them

out of what's on the rails,
and in the selling book.

Anyway.

- [Andre] She is a dress
designer, and she's an activist.

She's passionate
about other issues

other than just
putting a dress on.

What I'm very surprised is,

and I think it's the
height of elegance,

is that on this day

when she is opening
a store in Manhattan,

Vivienne has chosen not
to fly across the pond,

and she's sitting at
home working her thesis

about global warming
or capitalism.

She's very concerned
about our planet.

- I'm having a rave of a time.

I've sorted the
whole company out.

I've got everybody
doing what I want.

The plan is we've got to
work with the designers,

that's what's been wrong.

I can't believe when
I'm looking into it,

there's shops worldwide.

How many pairs of fucking
plastic shoes we sell

and all that stuff.

I can't believe it,

and of course I'm the designer

and I've got total control

because I cannot just say look,

if I don't like the design,

then you can't I do it if I
don't like my own designs,

I can't give them to you,
I've got artistic control.

I mean it's very very simple.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- I always wondered what
it would have looked like

with a black ceiling.

I always wanted a black ceiling.

Andreas won't do it.

I always like to try
it and see if it works.

Hello hello Simone.

I'm alright thank you.

I haven't made my mind
up about the shop yet,

I'm just only--

- We just love everything here.

- I've got to make my mind up.

I'm in the process of
absorbing it at the moment.

It must stop growing,

but it's very very
difficult to do that.

But we've been trying
to open a shop in Paris

for the last ten years.

That doesn't mean to
say we're expanding,

that was in the plan before,

and there's no
reason to break that,

but then Carlo my
manager was planning

to open a shop in Beijing
and I've stopped that.

- [Pepe] She wasn't
happy design-wise,

even to say she hates it.

- I hate the music.

- [Pepe] It doesn't feel like
Westwood, but at the same time

not even Vivienne
Westwood or Andreas

even knows where they are now.

That shop, it reflect

maybe even the
problem we got inside,

because we have a problem,

it's like being a family
where you got the drunk aunty,

you got the gay uncle.

It go you know the crazy kids.

You have this big family

and you can't control
them altogether,

but at least we're
still working on it.

- It's very difficult
but everything we do

has got to be solved
in a different way,

in order to slowly
get to this point and,

I don't know, it's, it's
really really difficult

to get from here to
there, that's all.

But we're slowly doing it.

- [News Reporter] The
fashion world is honored

with an OBE going to the
flamboyant fashion designer,

Vivienne Westwood.

- People were very
impressed by it,

all the people who work with me,

are very pleased
because they feel

that they share in it, really.

- There were a few things

that I thought were
milestones I suppose.

One one was when we bought

the building for
the head office.

That was quite a milestone
because it felt like,

right, well we we
kind of own that now.

I decided I couldn't
work with Carlo.

It was had to be one
or the other of us,

and my mum had decided
that she needed him,

which hurt a bit, I but I
also felt I was young enough,

and I was kind of at the time

when I wanted to go and do
something for myself anyway.

But before I left, the one
thing that I made her do,

was sign this license deal
with a Japanese company,

'cause I know the minimum
royalties on this contract,

she'll be okay.

Carlo hadn't wanted
her to sign this deal,

and I made her sign the deal

in the lawyers in front
of Carlo and everyone.

You've got to sign this,
and after she'd done that

I felt she was
gonna be all right.

- You're going to take this

and show it to Martina
at whatever stage,

and get that sorted out,

and I've got to tell
you which mesh to use.

There won't be any
more pleats there,

because this one is the
one that just comes anyway

in the way the fabric's cut,
there's no folding there.

- It's very nice.

- Yeah, I think it's
going to look great,

just going to put
it on Kate Moss.

She'll look lovely in it.

Okay, so I'll give that to you.

- Thank you.

- Do you want to take this
corset with you, as well?

- And the corset as well.

[audience applauding]

- Those shows, they
were so outrageous,

you know champaign was flowing,

and we'd go out naked
and lollipops and,

you know, just
outrageous, but really

glamorous at the same time.

They were the ones that went,

ah oh my God, it
was so exciting.

- That's part of my history,

which is fun, I've
got the shoes.

There was a pair in
the museum in London.

I got an insurance
commercial out of it.

You know, it's done well
for Vivienne and I, both.

- She's a rebel isn't she so,

which attracts me.

Coming from Croydon,
we wanted to get out

and she was like our queen.

[crowd cheering]

[Ravel's "Bolero"]

- Provocative,
beautiful, respectful.

It's hard to imagine
that one designer

could be all of those things.

- I love her femininity,
I love everything she do,

and she's not so young, and
she still can wear fashion,

and she's never ridiculous.

She's one of the
only one, I think.

- She's iconic,

and she's at the
top of her game,

she's so authentic.

And you know she's on
this planet for a reason,

to stir it up a little bit.

[crowd cheering]

[Ravel's "Bolero"]

- She's a punk rocker.

She's the only punk rocker.

- I can't be bothered.

Who wants to listen
to all this stuff?

I mean the film's
only a certain length,

I'm sure there's more
interesting things
to put on to it.

[jazz rock music]

- I remembered the shows,

but I can't remember which one,

and we were back
stage and she went,

Kate, you know I've
never been into girls,

I could have got into you,

and then like hugged me.

She was like, I could have
been her only lesbian lover.

Kaching!

- You know Vivienne is
very outspoken person,

sometimes too outspoken,
silly outspoken.

She knows it,

but you need people like this,

these are the people
who are changing things.

[jazz rock music]

- [Vivienne] What's his name?

- [Man] Tiny, Tiny Tempah.

- [Vivienne] Tiny Tempah?

- [Man] Yes.

- But I'm a quite
well-known musician but.

- Yeah, I'm sure 'cause
I just don't follow

pop things, you know.
- Yeah, I understand,

I understand.

- Tiny Tempah is that.

- Tiny Tempah, correct.

- [Vivienne] I'm very good
on lyrics you know and sound

bytes and that.

- [Tiny] Inspiration.

- [Vivienne] Yes, yeah.

[soft orchestral music]