110+ Vivienne Westwood Quotes (Iconic, Innovative And Rebellious)

Vivienne Westwood is an English fashion designer, businesswoman and political activist. She is known for her avant-garde and punk designs, which have been highly influential in the fashion industry since the 1970s. She has been credited with bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

Top 10 Vivienne Westwood Quotes

1. The fight is no longer between the classes or between rich and poor but between the idiots and the eco-conscious.
2. You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes.
3. Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes.
4. Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well.
5. 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.
6. Buy less, choose well: that's the maxim. Quality not quantity. That's the most environmentally friendly thing you can do.
7. I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them - they are individual and stylish.
8. If you wear clothes that don't suit you, you're a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better.
9. The sexiest people are thinkers. Nobody's interested in somebody who's just vain with a hole in their head, talking about the latest thing - there is no latest thing. It's all rubbish.
10. The most erotic zone is the imagination.

Vivienne Westwood Short Quotes

• I think feminists are unaware of the tremendous extent of the role of women in history.
• There's nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere.
• I didn't know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world
• I never look at fashion magazines. I find them incredibly boring.
• I like to literally put women on a pedestal
• It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity.
• My clothes are very popular in Japan.
• The best fashion accessory is a book.
• The sexiest people are thinkers.
• Fashion is life-enhancing and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people.

Vivienne Westwood Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

It is all about technique. The great mistake of this century is to put inspiration and creativity first. — 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

Why do people think that if you don't dress up, others will appreciate your beauty more - that style will somehow emanate from you? It's rubbish. If you dress up it helps your personality to emerge - if you choose well — Vivienne Westwood

Art should never be sociological; it has got to be timeless. It's got to be your vision and how you can represent the world you see. — Vivienne Westwood

The muscular, athletic type is not representative of the human race, who are varied in their physique. — Vivienne Westwood

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. You've got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We're amazing people. — Vivienne Westwood

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. — Vivienne Westwood

We are so conformist; nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff; we have been trained to be consumers, and we are all consuming far too much. — Vivienne Westwood

I think dress, hairstyle and make-up are the crucial factors in projecting an attractive persona and give one the chance to enhance one's best physical features. — 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

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

When I'm in the street, the only people I notice are usually at least 70 years old, because they look really stylish. — 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

We are the most amazing creatures that this world has ever produced, but we seem to also have this herd mentality; we seem to be the most stupid, also. — Vivienne Westwood

I've got a real sense of three-dimensional geometry. I can look at a flat piece of fabric and know that if I put a slit in it and make some fabric travel around a square, then when you lift it up it will drape in a certain way, and I can feel how that will happen. — Vivienne Westwood

The orb came about because I wanted to do this kitsch sweater for Prince Charles when he went hunting and fishing with his kilt on. — Vivienne Westwood

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. — Vivienne Westwood

I'm always attracted to people who interest me. They've got to be people who are really true to themselves somehow, and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting, or better, or something for somebody else. They're interested in people. — 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

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 one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people. — Vivienne Westwood

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don't notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70. — Vivienne Westwood

I always thought we had an environmental problem, but I hadn't realized how urgent it was. James Lovelock writes that by the end of this century there will be one billion people left. — 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

I was so upset with what was going on in the world. I just couldn't stand the idea of being people tortured and that we even had such a thing as war. I hated the older generation, who had not done anything about it. Punk was a call-to-arms for me. — 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

The best night of my life was watching the Japanese Noh theater. I've only seen it once, but even saying it now, I think, 'How can I ever have this experience again?' It was so mesmerizing, so complicated and so primordial; I could not believe it. — Vivienne Westwood

I think that feminists have definitely underestimated the role that women have had historically. I think I would be insecure if I were to be a man; there's so much pressure on you. — Vivienne Westwood

I didn't do anything at the Queen, whom I admire. — Vivienne Westwood

The main message of Climate Revolution is that climate change is caused by the rotten financial system we've got, designed to create poverty and rip off any profits for a small amount of rich people. Meanwhile, it destroys the earth. — Vivienne Westwood

All that self-expression has just created a generation of morons, hooked on an endless appetite for rubbish. — 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

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It's always sexy, and it's always with the same result: making women look fantastic. — Vivienne Westwood

I was still interested in the youth rebellion but never-the-less I stopped being a victim. Stopped trying to attack the establishment realizing that it takes too much of your energy. — Vivienne Westwood

We wanted to step off our island and add the color of the third world. We got gold cigarette paper and stuck it around our teeth. We really did look like pirates and dressed to look the part. — Vivienne Westwood

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists. — Vivienne Westwood

I try to concentrate on quality clothing and accessories that are worth having, and to get my people to take fewer trips by air and stay longer each time they travel. It’s more human, especially if they take time to visit an art gallery while there. — Vivienne Westwood

How impossible it is for us to imagine ourselves victims of disaster. We suffer for the poor people who were thrown into the sea from their cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany, some losing their lives. Imagine a world of accelerating natural disasters, one after the other so that nobody can help anyone else. — Vivienne Westwood

However, because Britain is young and exciting, I did show my second line here once or twice. — Vivienne Westwood

But, having a perfume and license, in general, is a financial necessity. A designer must, to reap back the money spent on prototypes and all that sort of thing. — Vivienne Westwood

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

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

I really don't like women who try to be men. All these politicians, I think they're horrendous. We could have a brilliant future, but we have this terrible male vision of destroying everything. They'd better sort themselves out and become more womanly. — Vivienne Westwood

Nothing is costed properly and it's destroying the earth. We need to re-educate people that what is good for the planet is good for the financial system. — Vivienne Westwood

I think it's important to vote. — Vivienne Westwood

I talk to fashion designers and say I want some money to save the rainforest, and they say, 'Oh, I agree with you completely Vivienne. Yes, climate change, it's definitely happening,' but they don't feel that they can do anything about it; they don't even think 'Well let's stop it!' — Vivienne Westwood

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

If you ask me what I think people should be getting next season, I’ll tell you what I’d like them to buy—nothing. I’d like people to stop buying and buying and buying. — 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

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

I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle. — Vivienne Westwood

I'll tell you what I was like as a child. I was a good person. I was high-spirited but I was a big reader. — Vivienne Westwood

There are many war refugees and three times as many climate refugees. All of them are people who can no longer live where they were born. I hope we face reality in time to save ourselves. We will all be migrants soon. — 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

The hippie movement politicized my generation. When it ended, we all started looking back at our own history, looking, in my case, for motives of rebellion. — Vivienne Westwood

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. — Vivienne Westwood

Shoes must have very high heels and platforms to put women's beauty on a pedestal. — 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 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

In the 18th century, if women wanted to travel and they dressed as a man, people would not look twice. Your clothes said everything. Also there were masters and servants swapping clothes. You could be anything, your clothes told everything! — Vivienne Westwood

I don't care how many beauty treatments you have, I don't care which bag you're carrying - you have to have a dress. — Vivienne Westwood

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

I think it is terribly important to have opinions, and to think. We live in a world of action without thought. — Vivienne Westwood

There’s this idea that somehow you’ve got to keep changing things, and as often as possible. Maybe if people just decided not to buy anything for a while, they’d get a chance to think about what they wanted; what they really liked. — Vivienne Westwood

I love designing at the moment, I'm so happy with my work. — Vivienne Westwood

Instead of buying six things, buy one thing that you really like. Don't keep buying just for the sake of it. — 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

It's better to look important than sexy. — Vivienne Westwood

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

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

I don't watch television and I rarely go to the cinema, but I recently watched 'The King's Speech' on a flight. It was so beautiful and so simple. — Vivienne Westwood

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.' — Vivienne Westwood

Being part of a community with a church at its centre and singin' hymns is a great thing to do. — Vivienne Westwood

Within one generation, Los Angeles will be uninhabitable if people don’t do something about it. The world is going to get smaller and be uninhabitable and impossible to live in. — Vivienne Westwood

If you hear Anarchy in the UK today your hair stands on end. It gives you the shivers. — Vivienne Westwood

I tend not to like an awful lot of what is going out under my name now because it is just all product. Who needs it? — Vivienne Westwood

Intelligence is composed mostly of imagination, insight, things that have nothing to do with reason. — Vivienne Westwood

If you saw Queen Elizabeth it would be amazing, she came from another planet. She was so attractive in what she was wearing. — Vivienne Westwood

When I was a little girl you used to learn to sew all the holes in things, darning socks, but nobody mends things anymore. — Vivienne Westwood

If you dress up, it helps your personality to emerge - if you choose well. — Vivienne Westwood

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent. — Vivienne Westwood

I have certain signatures, certain cutting principles. It could be a raw-edged seam; it could be leaving the lining of sheepskin exposed so it's not perfectly finished. I invent new ways to do it, but the end goal is always the same. — Vivienne Westwood

I own my own company, so I've never had businessmen telling me what to do or getting worried if something doesn't sell. I've always had my own access to the public, because I started off making my clothes for a little shop and so I've always had people buying them. — 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

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

I'm not trying to do something different, I'm trying to do the same thing but in a different way — Vivienne Westwood

I just think people should invest in the world. Don't invest in fashion, but invest in the world. — Vivienne Westwood

I have always loved the Mao cap, though I hate violent revolution. — Vivienne Westwood

And it's absolutely great, when everything comes together with the hair, the dresses and the makeup and the models and the music and the presentation. I can't get over these girls. They look wonderful. But by the time we finish with them, they look like they came from another planet. And I just think it's great. — Vivienne Westwood

Life Lessons by Vivienne Westwood

1. Vivienne Westwood has taught us to be brave and to take risks, showing us that it is possible to break free from the status quo and create something unique and innovative.
2. She has also taught us to stay true to ourselves and our beliefs, no matter what the world may think, and to never compromise our values.
3. Finally, she has shown us the power of collaboration and how working together can help us to create something truly remarkable.