Westwood speaks at the Union with the intention to recruit students as “activists” – BlewsWire

Credit Meggie Fairclough, BlewsWire

Vivienne Westwood admitted to not preparing a speech, but this did not stop her from captivating the audience and exuding confidence in purple lipsticks. She also had an air of humour running through her talk, mentioning how she gets distracted easily, in particular to a coughing student. At one point the 74-year-old designer and business woman, told a student off for taking photos, of which was made explicitly clear as forbidden beforehand.

The hit home message of the evening was that we are the last generation to do anything. She didn’t want to discuss the fashion part of her life in detail but tried to keep the focus of the talk on activism and climate change.

Vivienne Westwood was dismissive in her speech about the central banks and financial system, which “causes poverty and the poor to get poorer and poorer”. She stated “it’s the most terrible, terrible system with everyone being either “poor or dead”. The only more terrible thing in her mind is climate change.

Westwood put across her views on politics and the state of Britain. She said that “popular opinion is completely ignored” and laws are changed by the few people who control the world. She called the press a “non-stop distraction” with their biggest lie “the pretence that’s nothing changed”, doing what the politicians tell them. “Governments don’t listen to opinion”; “they’re not interested in whether you protest” once they’re in power and she emphasised that they believe their own “brainwashing”.

Vivienne Westwood encouraged the Cambridge students to attend a big demonstration with her, in London on 29th November, called ‘the people’s march for climate, justice and jobs‘. She further stated that “wars are fought for cheap labour, markets, natural resources.” The resources are finite and that’s why we have climate change according to Westwood; she reduced Britain to a “terrible economy whose base is war.”

Westwood did not only focus on the problems, but also the solutions to the topics of her speech, placing central importance on charitable organisations like Green Peace and people taking action themselves; “If we don’t save the rainforest, forget it. If we don’t save the Arctic, forget it.” Her talk touched on sustainability and giving back to the earth, commenting “the only way out of our difficulties is a green planet”.

She referred to the chamber audience as intellectuals, after quoting a friend saying “The world suffers from the isolation of intellectuals”. Although this was initially met with murmurs, she went on to say that intellectuals use art as a way to understand the world. The fashion designer also said that she “adores the concept of God” and that people should evolve and strive to perfection, “mirror the world through art”. “Every art lover is a freedom fighter”; and students were encouraged to be both. She asked the audience go read her dairy for a platform of discussion, “where you can find out what needs to be done in the world and what can be done” before going on more extreme marches.

A true inspiration, it was a pleasure to attend and see Westwood as a campaigner for change rather than fashion designer.