LFWM: Vivienne Westwood AW17

A Vivienne Westwood show is never just a show. When I first met the Grand Dame of fashion years ago at her son Joe Corré's brand presentation for A Child of the Jago, she made an impromptu and inspiring speech about climate change.

Westwood has been using her fashion credentials as an activist and bonafide campaigner for decades, allowing her unique voice to be heard amongst a set of peers who may or may not be as concerned for our planet's future.

Translated into fashion, on Monday Westwood showed her MAN and Red Label collection into one show, which wasn't any less of a political rally than we have come to expect. Models wore crowns to depict people power and which declared 'Ecotricity', a company endorsed by Westwood which supplies energy generated from windpower. They were dressed in Westwood's offbeat patchwork knits, unconventional pinstripe suiting and hybrid layering of staple fabrics to the House, such as Prince of Wales checked wool and chunky knitwear. Clothes and accessories bore slogans 'Don't be killed,' and 'I O U', streetwear language fused with messages.

Westwood recorded a video on the day of her show's casting to state the collection was unisex, describing the clothes as 'artistic, artisan, and intellectual' but mostly talked about changing the fashion industry to embrace green energy.

"Imagine if Harrods used green energy," Westwood mused. "All those lights at Christmas coming from an ecological and non-governmental company source."

And why not?

Photo credit:Vivienne Westwood AW17, source: London Fashion Week Men website