10 Truths by Dame Vivienne Westwood

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Vivienne Westwood aged 15
Vivienne Westwood aged 15Photography courtesy of the Vivienne Westwood archive

We pick ten of our favourite quotes from Dame Vivienne Westwood's new book

Fashion designer, activist and renowned maverick Dame Vivienne Westwood is a national treasure. Her fashion shows are legendary, her designs revolutionary: she patented the platform ‘pedestal’ shoe, created punk and is a leading human rights activist. “My clothes have an identity,” she says, “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.” Westwood’s own story is retold in a new book by Picador. The personal memoir moves between Westwood’s own voice and esteemed biographer Ian Kelly, interspersed by quotes, letters and stories from her sons, friends and collaborators. Laced with nostalgia, it traces her life story, from her first job working at Woolworths in Manchester to the legendary SEX shop at 430 Kings Road to the development of her own label, reinventing seventeenth century buccaneer clothing with the signature Westwood spin. It discloses her romantic past, her years of poverty, her stormy breakup with Malcolm McLaren and the influence of Canadian artist Gary Ness. Told with Westwood’s idiosyncratic wit, charm and aplomb, it is informative and funny, grounded by the clothing that has shaped her life. The “warp and weft of social history,” as Ian Kelly puts it. Here, we pick ten of our favourite quotations from the book.

On her childhood...
“I simply had the greatest childhood. I was born in the country to parents who just did everything for me… we lived in Millbrook, a row of stone cottages on a hollow road half a mile from Hollingworth and a mile from Tintwistle. It was all about family.”

“Malcolm cared passionately for clothes and transformed me from a Dolly Bird into a chic, confident dresser”

On school...
“I got 95% in English Literature O Level and 90% in history. I read Dickens at home and at school we had The Wind in the Willows, Morte d’Arthur, Macbeth and Henry V. I loved Keats, and A Passage to India touched me.”

On Malcolm McLaren...
“He influenced the way I dressed and thought about clothes too. He began to spend most of his student grant on clothes for me. He cared passionately for clothes and transformed me from a Dolly Bird into a chic, confident dresser.”

On punk...
“There was no punk before me and Malcolm. And the other thing you should know about punk too: it was a total blast… what I do now is still punk – it’s still abut shouting about injustice and making people think… I’ll always be punk in that sense.”

On The Sex Pistols...
“I really liked Steve, and I got on very well with Sid as well. Even though Sid was a very, very bad person. He simply didn’t know the difference between right and wrong. So you couldn’t really be that much of a friend to Sid. But he was very clever. Very bright and interested. Which is the sort of person I like. If you can have all of that and look great in interesting clothes, you’ll capture my attention.”

On poverty...
“I was very, very poor indeed. I was on my own and even as the press were going mad for what we were doing – right beyond the Mini Crini collection and Harris Tweed, we had ten very, very hard years.”

On the corset...
“For me the focus of a woman is the waist... this corset we made, it was really, really sexy. People just loved it... three sizes were all we ever needed. A real wave-the-flag moment of euphoria.”

On men...
“There’s a wonderful chinese proverb. If a horse is yours, he will always come home.”

On activism...
“I reach people — people who read fashion magazines for instance – who would never have heard about some of this otherwise. My main point, though, is quality rather than quantity. What I’m always trying to say is: buy less, choose well, make it last; though sometimes I might as well say, “buy Vivienne Westwood”!”

On her guide to living...
“The Adventures of Pinocchio. It’s a philosophy of life… so naughty. So wild. But he’s got a heart of gold. And of course, that’s what saves him.”

Text by Mhairi Graham

Vivienne Westood by Vivienne Westwood and Ian Kelly is published by Picador and available from October 9.