VIVIENNE WESTWOOD @ SS2014 Men's Collection

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD SS2014 Men's Collection Andreas and the team took their inspiration from India. And of course the first great impression is the Indian Rajas with their heavy-lidded almond eyes and their perfumed beards, their turbans and covered in a wealth of jewels - no human creatures have ever been so wealthy.

           

   "We passed on because I don’t have direct experience of India. I have only my romantic impressions and our inspiration comes from museums and photographs: Hindu gods and dancing and colour and flowers and spices and tigers and the jungle and the Ganges, temples and sari’s worn by the most elegant women, beauty and grace­ and the Indian children I have met in England are lively and intelligent- a huge population, the caste system. 

Nothing changed after the British left in 1950. The new rulers exploited the country and its people like the old colonials.

We knew we had to have colour but we began with whites, white that shines in the sun and white that looks dusty, cream and black with texture and pattern and mixed with indigo. Then checks and prints, then some colour and colour degrade. I think the overall colour effect belongs in the light of the sun. Does sunshine disguise poverty to the English outsider.

A few motifs from Persia or Morocco crept in. There is a feeling of being in an oriental garden. In a recent essay Noam Chomsky summed up what’s happening in the world: the rich are racing as fast as they can to destroy the world, the poor are fighting to stop them.

India is the most extreme example of this. The government is selling the country’s mineral rights to corporations and consortiums. When the land is ruined the people have nowhere to go.

Maoist organization fights the evictions and when people have nowhere to go they are considered Maoists, many do join the Maoists in the forests: young people, victims of atrocity, girls and boys join them.

The police steal everything they can, rape, burn; they are paid to kill. The government is increasing the police force. They are purposely creating war. Why? Because they want the people off the land. Why? Because most of the minerals the government is selling are still in the ground.  I wanted a soft more feminine feel to the clothes, more ease to the fit." Says Vivienne Weswood.