The Best Vivienne Westwood quotes

Buy less, choose well, make it last. Quality rather than quantity: That is true sustainability. If people only bought beautiful things rather than rubbish, we wouldn’t have climate change! — 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

The main message we want to get out there is that climate change is caused by the rotten economic system. — 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

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

I can’t think without my glasses. — Vivienne Westwood

I’ve got a terrible memory; it’s probably because I’m always concentrating on what I’m doing now. — Vivienne Westwood

My clothes are very popular in Japan. — Vivienne Westwood

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

Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes. — 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

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

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

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

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

My clothes have always got a very strong dynamic rapport with the body–they are very body conscious, they help you to look glamorous, more hourglass, more woman. — 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

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

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

If you’re too big to fit into fashion, then you just have to do your own fashion. — Vivienne Westwood

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

My fashion advice is to have a flattering mirror and then forget about it. — 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

I never look at fashion magazines. I find them incredibly boring. — Vivienne Westwood

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

Journalists are usually quite jealous people, especially of intellectuals who are supposed to be in fashion. — 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

The only reason I’m in fashion is to destroy the word conformity. — Vivienne Westwood

The best fashion accessory is a book. — Vivienne Westwood

I very rarely watch my own fashion shows, but the makeup for my Fall 2011 show was just brilliant. — 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

To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I’ve got books I need to read. — Vivienne Westwood

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

It’s true the punk fashion itself was iconographic: rips and dirt, safety pins, zips, slogans, and hairstyles. These motifs were so iconic in themselves–motifs of rebellion. — 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 wish you didn’t have to design so often. Try to do quality and cut down on quantity. I think fashion is very, very important. — Vivienne Westwood

At one time, I was very angry. I even treated fashion like a kind of crusade: you were either with us or against us, that kind of feeling. Now I know we need ideas, not kicking down a door. — Vivienne Westwood

You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes. — 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

If Mrs Merkel wants to wear Westwood, I can promise that I will design clothes for her that will make her look chic, refined and influential. — 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

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

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

What I’m always trying to say to the consumer is: buy less, choose well, make it last. — Vivienne Westwood

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

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn’t have anything. It’s influenced the way I look at the world. — Vivienne Westwood

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

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

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

Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it’s popular, it’s not culture. — Vivienne Westwood

Fashion is life–enhancing and I think it’s a lovely, generous thing to do for other people. — Vivienne Westwood

Fashion is very important. It is life–enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well. — Vivienne Westwood

I always tried to do things by example, even though I was not a very good mother regarding routines and family life. — Vivienne Westwood

Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to life in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world. — Vivienne Westwood

What changed our lives forever was when Malcolm had the idea to sell rock ‘n roll records to trendy customers. — Vivienne Westwood