A LIFE IN FASHION I didn't like it at all. About 15 years ago, my husband, Andreas [Kronthaler], said to me, 'You've really got to decide to like this [business] or give it up. You can't just not like it.' I never wanted to do fashion, I just designed to help out my partner in those days, [entrepreneur and musician] Malcolm McLaren. Then I realised I was creating a big sensation in the fashion world and perhaps I had a duty to carry on. In retrospect, I would have been stupid to have given it up because, in my opinion, I had had an incredible impact. Clothes would not be the same today if I had never done fashion. Andreas has been an incredible influence and he's not credited with that because I am the public face and because punk was such a phenomenon and we would never have that impact again. Andreas does as much design as I do and we work well together.
WILD YOUTH Punk was great, I learned a lot from it. It wasn't a question of being shocking but at the time we [with McLaren] were doing punk it was to be rebellious. The world was terrible and corrupt in the 1970s - it still is - and the idea was to rebel against the older generation. We wanted to look like urban guerrillas. Punk was a look that evolved from the bondage fashions of SEX [Westwood's 70s London fashion boutique]. We were trying to confront the hypocrisy of the establishment.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON I can't remember why the 'A Life in Fashion' exhibition didn't go ahead in Hong Kong three years ago - we were trying to keep the tour geographical and it went to Japan. I have no idea why [the authorities] should have considered it controversial. [Hong Kong could have been the first stop for the exhibition but the Leisure and Cultural Services Department thought it did not 'fit the taste of Hong Kong people'.] It is nearing the end of its five-year non-stop tour now and a lot of places have had record attendances, which is nice.
ART BREAK I don't go on holiday. I travel as little as I can but I do go when the exhibition opens and spend a couple of extra days in the city. I went to Shanghai and stayed longer to go to the museum as I am mad about Chinese paintings. If I could choose my time again, I would just sit and look at Chinese paintings - I think they are just incredible. When I was in Brazil, I gave a reading of my manifesto and went to see the rainforests.
MISSION STATEMENT The manifesto is a 22-page document, called Active Resistance to Propaganda, launched last year about the need for art and culture. I've got very strong opinions about how to make the world a better place. I designed a [save the] rainforest collection for this winter with clothes hand-painted by children. I think we are doomed unless we do something about the rainforests and I am working on that idea at the moment. The prediction is that in 100 years, [the population will be 5 billion less than it is now]. The danger we are in is extreme. The human genus is moving towards self-destruction.
We've got to make sure tyrannies don't wipe away human life. People ask me why I don't become a politician - I am too old for a start: if I was 50 years old, maybe. I am taken quite seriously judging by the comments I receive when I do readings [of the manifesto] in schools, universities and other places. It is important to try to make a difference. The talk of democracy in the west, for instance, has had a new lease of life with [the election of] Barack Obama. It makes you think public opinion does make a difference.