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There wasn’t a mention of Chesterfield coats or little loafers in sight in the show notes at Vivienne Westwood MAN on Sunday afternoon in Milan. “The fight is no longer between the classes or between rich and poor, but between the idiots and the eco-conscious,” the piece of paper read. From formal and prim gentlemen to tattooed activist types, models were covered in bruises, hinting at the united front called for by Dame Vivienne. And so the climate revolution that was the Westwood collection kicked off, yellow hounds-tooth gas masks in tow. “We messed about for ages yesterday night until God knows when,” Creative Director Andreas Kronthaler told i-D backstage. “We wanted to start really with the cyclewear, but then I thought it was better to have it in the middle because it was quite strong, this yellow and striped blue. The first outfit almost reminded me of the leader of a sect, somehow, of our climate revolution people. I thought it was a nice way to start very softly and then build it up, until it finally went into the white looks,” he explained, referring to the darkness-to-light kind of build-up of a show portraying both the despair and the hope characterised by the climate crisis.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
