FASHION Magazine

This past June brought unusually sweltering temperatures from the Pacific Northwest, creeping east to Gibbons, Alta., where Terri-Lynn Lunty resides. A sustained drought in the area had meant tight water restrictions, and a handful of rainy days brought little relief. Lunty remembers looking outside her window at her yellow yard and the fried trees in […]

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At some point in your life, a young Greenpeace activist has probably stopped you, and chances are, you smiled and avoided eye contact. Or you stayed and talked—good for you. But Vivienne Westwood is urging you to linger for more than a few seconds. The legendary designer knows she can get your attention, which is harder than it sounds, especially within the world of fashion. Westwood, though, tries to use this moment of attention as a medium to express her brand of politics and environmental consciousness.

Recently, she’s been involved with a Greenpeace initiative that asked the world to compete in designing a flag for the North Pole in efforts to help claim it for mother nature—At the moment, no single nation owns the high seas around the Pole. But as a convincing British male-voice explains in a video on the Greenpeace website, industry is lurking for the ice to melt and give way for drilling and hunting. Given Westwood’s passion for climate wellbeing, she was a natural choice as one of the judges.

The winner of this futuristic contest is 13-year-old Sarah Bartrisyia from Malaysia, and her design will be etched on a Titanium flag, planted deep inside the seabed in a time capsule. The capsule also holds signatures of 2.7 million “Arctic defenders,” including celebrity names such as Jude Law and Pamela Anderson. The judges, including Hilary Tam (a Chinese-Canadian TV presenter), two Canadian Northern Indigenous artists and 15-year-old Aishah Morshed from Ireland, had to choose between more than 1,400 designs from 54 cities,

On a typically rainy London day, I was escorted up a tiny elevator (as most things are here— tiny), and into a studio not very big for a woman as iconic as Westwood. She’s been making noise for a few decades now, if not with her clothes then with her choice of men, activism, and critique of Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama–gasp. But the studio seemed sincere, a bit messy and understated, with a big table in the middle and stools around it, where I assumed her creativity pours out to be tailored. Although recently, she admits, her husband carries most of her label’s heavy load—she’s too busy saving the world.

It’s easy to be skeptical, if not resentful, about celebrities that find time and the money for philanthropy. They can adopt multiple non-white kids, donate millions to their favorite charity, or go naked for PETA. But Westwood’s philosophy was just that; a philosophy. She lives by her manifesto, and explains it with a candor that can recruit.