Top 210 Quotes & Sayings by Vivienne Westwood - Page 3

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

Liverpool people are famous for liking clothes and fashion; they are very social and lively people, and we know that they like clothes.

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.

I have too much product, and I'm trying to rein it in and sell more of my main collection. I wish you didn't have to design so often; it would be good if you could keep on selling the same things for a few years and not have to do new things all the time.

I urge everyone to be trendsetters for Azza Suleiman. Let's make it one fashion which everyone will want to follow.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I don't notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

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.

When we started to do punk, we put all of these things together to create the look of an urban guerrilla - a rebel.

Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people.

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.

Journalists are usually quite jealous people, especially of intellectuals who are supposed to be in fashion.

I'm different from any other designer, businesswise, in that I've built this company up and I own it. I never had business hype behind me to promote my image... My image is real... I have never had marketing people telling me what to do.

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.

Fashion has become so whatever. I don't think there are any stones left to unturn.

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.

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.

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. I could always sell a few, even if I couldn't sell a lot, and somehow my business grew because people happened to like it. I'm in a fortunate position.

I have a company, and I've got to think about that. I'm trying to do my best there, and that's a much harder task. We recycle as much as possible, and we conserve. But I've always been one to save everything - I even walk up stairs on the very inside or the very outside to not wear out the tread.

I'm frugal. I'm not a very acquisitive woman. I never waste food. If you prepare your own food, you engage with the world, it tastes alive. It tastes good.

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.

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.

If we didn't have the Chinese buying things, we'd be on the floor.

Print some money and give it to us for the rain forests.

I've got a terrible memory; it's probably because I'm always concentrating on what I'm doing now.

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

Women fight for democracy and engage in the world. But they shouldn't try and be copying men and be masculine; they should anchor on the home and build on those fundamentals.

The most erotic zone is the imagination.

A relationship should be based on friendship. I remember somebody telling me that when I was younger and I just thought, you know, stupid people, with that rubbish. But now I see that that is so important.

Sometimes you need to transport your idea to an empty landscape and then populate it with fantastic looking people.

I’m not terribly interested in beauty. What touches me is someone who understands herself.

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

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

The best fashion accessory is a book.

The only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word conformity.

I like to literally put women on a pedestal

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!

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

The young need discipline and a full bookcase.

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

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.

Fashion is life-enhancing and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people.

The fight is no longer between the classes or between rich and poor but between the idiots and the eco-conscious.

I didn't know how a working-class girl like me could possibly make a living in the art world

Buy less, choose well: that's the maxim. Quality not quantity. That's the most environmentally friendly thing you can do.

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.

Everyone has a masculine and feminine side; masculine qualities and feminine qualities. We've all got these sides to ourselves. And clothes can tell that story. People would think this is very unsympathetic, but I would always say to people, you don't actually need to go through with an operation, can't you just be? You are who you are! But then people say to me, "Oh, you're really dreadful, how would you know?".

The sexiest people are thinkers.

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.

Buy less, choose well & do it? yourself!

Fasion is about eventually becoming naked.

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.

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.