Apart from being one of the world’s top fashion legends, Westwood is also renowned for being an activist. She’s not doing it for the sake of fame. She’s clear in her stance, passionate and determined. For Spring/Summer 2006, we saw the Dame’s models draped with words like “Propaganda” strutting down the catwalk in Paris and very soon after we bought her “We are not terrorists” t-shirts because that’s all we can afford. Yes we are supporting her—from here to eternity—because she is, and always is, our beloved.

This time, at the RCA, reading from her Active Resistance to Propaganda, the Dame was not talking about fashion—but only about propaganda. The Active Resistance redirects our attention from art for art’s sake to art as the driving force of human existence. In the AR manifesto reading, Westwood personifying herself as Active Resistance is joined by her crew Pinocchio, Alice in the Wonderland and Aristotle. They juggle the questions and answers surrounding propaganda, imagination and art.

Art is the antidote to propaganda. Westwood suggests the dynamics between art, human beings and the propagandist society. “Without judges there is no art. She only exists when we know her. Does she exist? The answer to this question is of vital importance because if Art is alive the world will change. No Art, no progress.” As opposed to art, propaganda dictates our lives and curbs our potential. We live in a propagandist world. We become limited. It is only through art that we can liberate ourselves and create a better world.

“Imagination” is also Westwood’s another key word. “Imagination is the driving force in human nature. But it is likely to run wild and escape into the chaos of endless desire, unfulfilled longing and alienation. The way we control our imagination is through the imagination itself—or rather through its “best self”—the ethical part.”

WAIT A MINUTE! Before it gets way too philosophical. What is SHE on about? Art. Imagination. Propaganda. Art. Liberation. Westwood’s idea is not particularly new—even she herself admits she does not entirely agree with this manifesto she had written a few years ago. So, why do we bother? On the one hand, this is the copy-and-paste work at its worst—rebranding it under the Westwood label but entirely void of the Westwood magic. On the other, the rebranding works terribly well because there are millions—and we dare say millions—of Vivienne Westwood worshippers out there dying to take every word of her manifesto to heart. They are the Alices and the Pinocchios who want to be shown the way out of the world of propagandist labyrinth.

BUT, can we really get out of this mess? We will never know. Westwood herself could not express her thoughts clearly when an audience asked if art is really the way out because art itself—in this capitalistic world—is intertwined with money. We SUPERSWEET don’t want to sound pessimistic. We are just telling you what we really think.

Find out more about Active Resistance here.

Words: Poonperm Paitayawat