Born Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood, Vivienne Westwood is a British businesswoman and fashion designer who is largely responsible for upbringing new wave fashions into the mainstream and is also accountable for the modern upbringing of punk.
Vivienne Westwood gained fame after making clothes lines for Malcolm McLaren; she also made clothes for Malcolm McLaren's boutique on King's Road. Westwood has created many clothing items, but her most famous design is the punk wedding dress with its punk chains and rips.
Find below the most famous 51 Vivienne Westwood sayings and quotes to motivate yourself and embrace the most concentrated experience from the ideal life you have on this planet.
Famous Vivienne Westwood Quotes
Vivienne Westwood began her fashion designing career in 1971 in London along with her partner Malcolm McLaren. They showcased their ideas and designs at the 430 Kings Road shop.
Westwood's fashion styles are inspired by her fondness for the 18th century and '50s infused with modern punk. Vivienne Westwood believed that a young lady could conquer the world effortlessly with the right shoes. Read here the most famous Vivienne Westwood fashion and life quotes.
"Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it's popular, it's not culture."
"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."
"In history people dressed much better than we do today."
"My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent."
"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."
"I don't have space to enter into the examples or the history of this, so I'm left with having to make the bold statement that culture is extinct."
"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."
"It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity."
"I do think if you aim for quality, it's not so much about consumerism. The idea is 'Buy less, choose well, make it last.'"
"There is a real connection between culture and climate change. We all have a part to play and if you engage with life, you will get a new set of values, get off the consumer treadmill, and start to think, and it is these great thinkers who will rescue the planet."
"What changed our lives forever was when Malcolm had the idea to sell rock 'n roll records to trendy customers."
"In general: the true artist is always true to his art; the impostor is self-conscious, demonstrating his idea, projecting his theory, his ego, and e.g., the figures of the painter are not borrowed ideas who demonstrate themselves talking, dying, dreaming - they do it."
"I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them – they are individual and stylish."
Vivienne Westwood Quotes About Fashion
(Take a look at the Vivienne Westwood quotes about pure fashion derived from her 40 years of a fashion career.)
Vivienne Westwood achieved many styles and had unforgettable runway experiences throughout her career. Besides, she also had numerous personal style moments and wore her own clothes on the catwalk and other runway shows, presenting her pure fashion and signature style. Here are Vivienne Westwood's quotes, thoughts, and sayings about fashion.
"Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well."
"Shoes must have very high heels and platforms to put women's beauty on a pedestal."
"Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people."
"If you dress up, it helps your personality to emerge – if you choose well."
"If you're too big to fit into fashion, then you just have to do your own fashion."
"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."
"You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes."
"I'm not trying to do something different; I'm trying to do the same thing but in a different way."
"I was a punk before it got its name. I had that hairstyle and purple lipstick."
"Get rid of those terrible jeans that everybody else wears. And wear something different for a change, so you don't just look like a clone."
- April 25, 2008, Daily Mayo.
"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."
"The only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word conformity."
"My aim is to make the poor look rich and the rich look poor."
Vivienne Westwood Quotes About Life
Vivienne Westwood had her own mini fashion empire operating numerous boutiques and women's and men's wear collections. Though she had made a fortune and fame, Vivienne Westwood lived in a small apartment in South London and had different perspectives about life. Here are top Vivienne Westwood quotes about living your life to the fullest.
"My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young."
"The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas."
"There is no hierarchy of values any more. Real progress is due mainly to human genius, and that's rare, and usually stems from a real elite, from a hierarchy."
"You've got to invest in the world, you've got to read, you've got to go to art galleries, you've got to find out the names of plants."
"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."
"I don't watch television, and I rarely go to the cinema. 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."
"Nowadays our society is dictated by the media and the internet. Our actions are all influenced in some way by someone. We should learn to think before we act in order to make ourselves into better human beings."
"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."
"It is all about technique. The great mistake of this century is to put inspiration and creativity first."
"Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to live in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world."
"I never look at fashion magazines. I find them incredibly boring. To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I've got books I need to read. More people should read books. It's the most concentrated experience you can have."
"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."
"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."
Inspirational Vivienne Westwood Quotes
According to Vivienne Westwood, the best fashion accessory for the young is a book or a full bookcase. She was an avid fashion scholar who was terribly interested in quality, not quantity and inspired a new generation of fashion designers through her unparalleled creativity.
For more than a decade, she has drawn attention through her clothes and work in the '70s. Find below some of the most famous inspirational Vivienne Westwood quotes to make your life more interesting.
"Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes."
"Feminists wish women to seem like men. They're not men."
"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."
"I'm not terribly interested in beauty. What touches me is someone who understands herself."
"The young need discipline and a full bookcase."
"You know, all those incredible geniuses concentrated their lifetimes' experiences in books. It's much better than chattering away to somebody who's never read anything and knows nothing at all.
"The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists."
"I design things to help people to hopefully express their personality."
"More people should read books. It's the most concentrated experience you can have."
"Profound thinking will frequently convey us to universes that never existed and spark inspiration."
"To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I've got books I need to read."
"Intelligence is composed mostly of imagination, insight, things that have nothing to do with reason."
