Vivienne Westwood Considers Feminism 'Dangerous,' Doesn't Like Kate Middleton's Makeup

Dame Vivienne Westwood is a British icon, but over the weekend, she hit the Deep South to spread her gospel of peace, punk, and platform heels. The revolutionary designer, now 74, appeared to a packed house at Savannah College of Art and Design, where she received the coveted André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award—then used her acceptance speech to rally the troops (read: fashion school undergrads).

“Politicians are criminals,” she told the audience, “and world banks create crimes against humanity.You are humanity. What are you going to do about it?”

Inspired but stumped, we met the London legend one-on-one to find out some answers…

Yahoo Style: You casually told SCAD students last night that you invented the anarchy sign. Really?

Vivienne Westwood: Yes, I did. But it wasn’t an invention, it was just an “A” in a circle. I think when I first had the word CHAOS on an arm band, I put a circle around the “A” for some reason and gave it to Malcolm [McLaren] to wear. I wanted to be an anarchist, and I decided that was the sign for it.

YS: Did you and Malcolm inspire each other politically? Or just fashion-wise?

VW: Well, in those days, punk and anarchy were really about the young revolting against the old. And Malcolm, he hated the older generation, but that was more a personal problem than a political one. He hated my mother and all kinds of things! He hated all kinds of authority. And so it was all about youth against age because of him, but also because of me.

YS: In your mind, when did you first become a punk?

VW: Right from the earliest age, I’ll tell you it even started when I was four years old. I saw a picture of the crucifixion for the first time. I was brought up Protestant. I’d never seen it before. I found out what it was, and I was so shocked. It made me criticize my parents. I thought, Why haven’t they ever told me this? And, Why haven’t they tried to do something about this kind of violence? If this kind of thing can go on in the world, and they’re not even going to tell me? So I turned against my parents as well. My mother had another baby. I thought, She can have her babies but when I grow up, I’m going to sort things out! I’m never going to let a crucifixion happen again!

YS: So you became an artist to stop another crucifixion?

VW: My thinking at the time — and it’s completely to do with why I got really interested in punk — was that it wasn’t the political side of it. It was the fashion that got me, because I think it was really heroic. When you wear straps around your legs and around your jacket, you feel noble or something. You feel strong and tough. And of course, punk clothes link us with soldiers and armies and being tied up in a uniform. I was really so upset. It was the time of Vietnam. The world was so mismanaged. You’ve got the Watergate scandal. I just realized the world was being run by people who were destroying everything. The idea was, we don’t need those leaders.

YS: Are you still an anarchist?

VW: No, It’s something that I don’t believe in anymore. It think government should be made up of smaller entities. I think people need direct control over more things. But I thought things through and I suddenly understood that you have to have government in a great big world like this. We have to have policemen. I don’t think anarchy really works. I can’t imagine it does…

YS: What’s wrong with it?

VW: My experience with young people, even when I was young, was that they weren’t interested in anarchy really. They just wanted to party. Anarchy sounded great. But they just wanted to jump around and have a great time.

YS: You often tell people to stop shopping. But you dressed Carrie Bradshaw, the ultimate luxury addict. Why?

VW: Well Carrie’s wedding dress was a gown we’d already made. It was the ideal dress; it had everything. It was a gorgeous thing. And we always want to make gorgeous dresses. That’s the idea. But what I like about Carrie Bradshaw is that she was really stylish. She always dressed up, she always looked special, and that’s a kind of model for living, an icon for other people to use as inspiration and want to dress up. But the actual amount of clothes that Carrie Bradshaw had is a problem. Carrie Bradshaw should have chosen perhaps even better clothes and worn them a lot more often.  That would have been ideal. That’s what I would have asked them to do.  But I love that Carrie Bradshaw inspires people to dress up. You do live a better life if you dress up. You do.

YS: Do you still love fashion?

VW: I do! I love it when people put in a real effort and dress up. That’s why I love New York, where I’m opening a new store this fall. People in New York, they want to cut a figure and look important. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now. If I look back over my whole lifetime’s work, the one word I would use is “heroic.” I dress to look important and not to look sexy. I think the sex comes from looking important, from having power.

YS: Do you follow trends? What’s something you’ve noticed?

VW: I’ve noticed a lot of women do tend to want to look like they’re a kind of victim, like they could be attacked in an underwear dress or something. It’s nice to have a good body, but there’s something about a look of safety that’s great… flaunting your body in a cheap isn’t nice, is it?…We don’t have that element in our clothes. We make women look important.

YS: Are you a feminist?

VW: No, I don’t consider myself a feminist because I don’t think feminists are heroic. It’s like, “I’m a woman, I’m better than you. I’m a victim and my husband just called me a c–t and I’m abusive.” I really don’t like that mentality that you’re a victim, not if you live in the privileged world of [Western] women. But what I am very sympathetic to is the fact that the greatest number of deaths in the world are because men are stronger than women, physically. I want to change that.

YS: How?

VW: I would like to go see the Pope, and what I want to say to him is, “Can you do anything about contraception in the world?” Because that would alter the status of women worldwide. It would not only reduce the population, which is great for the environment, but it would give women more control over their lives and it would give men a completely different status in relation to women. That’s one of the great things that could happen if the Pope gets involved. So I am very sympathetic to worldwide women’s problems, but I hate that Women’s Lib attitude that these feminists are somehow better than you. That can be dangerous.

YS: Feminism can be dangerous?

VW: An example is what the feminists have done to Julian Assange. They believe that total crap about him. There was no rape. The only thing they’ve found is a condom with no DNA on it whatsoever. It’s made up by the Swedish government… He won’t be happy that I’m talking about this because it’s a distraction from the reality of his situation. The reality is that America wants him dead because he completely exposed so much corruption… And he’s still challenging governments, and he’s still working on Wikileaks, which is a library of truth. It exposes all the lies that the governments want you to believe.

YS: So even though you don’t have a personal computer, you know about Wikileaks? Have you also searched for yourself?

VW: No! I never have! Sometimes I check that people can easily find ClimateRevolution.com. I want to make sure if you type it in, you’ll get there.

YS: You campaign for causes. Do you consider yourself a politician?

VW: Absolutely not! They just want money. Politicians are criminals because they’re pro profit and anti people. That’s a division, you know?

YS: But your label is pro profit… does that mean you’re giving away clothes for free now?

VW: No, it’s got nothing to do with that! Money is a useful thing that we do need. But when money becomes an end in itself, that’s when the problem happens. With money, world banks own everything because they create debt. That’s an evil way to use money. There are good ways to use money. But the financial world needs to be controlled, although I wouldn’t know how. We just have to start with different values and policies. Let’s hire more teachers. Let’s pay them more money.

YS: So shopping isn’t evil…

VW: No, now wait a second! It’s just a question of saying, “should people wear clothes at all?” And if we should wear clothes at all, then fashion is a good business. It’s labor intensive. It’s based on skill. It’s based on quality. It’s based on art. And it’s based, or it should be based, on the idea that if you really like something, you can buy it and it’s going to last and last. We’re trying to limit our product at the moment because you should be able to buy something great that you love, and keep it.

YS: Is that the mission for your label?

VW: We’ve got a good business. Fashion is a good business. And I’ve asked myself “should we give it up?” But the answer is always, no, this is a good thing right now. I’d be willing to give up my label if there was some way of saving the environment — if I thought it would make any difference, I would. But I think our fashion label is actually quite a good model for future economies. We make smaller collections, we make better products. We’re not about creating lumps of stuff!

YS: What do you think of Kate Middleton? So curious.

VW: I think she might be influenced by me. I did say, “It would be great if Kate Middleton wore the same thing more than once.” Because the Queen doesn’t. It seems it’s turquoise one day, pink the next day, whatever. And I thought it would set a good example that whatever Kate wears, she does it more than once, to help people realize it’s better to have things you love and keep wearing them, rather than to just buy and buy and buy. And now I’ve seen she’s repeated her outfits, which is great. I hope she keeps doing that. I think she’s very good. But she’s not good at her own makeup.

YS: Oh really?

VW: It doesn’t suit her. The line around her eyes makes her look hard, and harsh, and older. Somebody should do something! And her hair—she’s got great hair, but she never does anything with it. She should. She’s a very good looking girl, without all the makeup!

Vivienne Westwood: Dress Up Story, a retrospective of the dame’s fashion career, is now on display at the SCAD Museum of Art

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