Get a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwood

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This online magazine fuses the best high-end, progressive and luxury brands as well as independent designers. Spanning six years of Climate Revolution, fashion and activism, the book is as provocative as you would expect from Britain’s punk dame. And then there are the personal colour photographs, fashion, celebrities, musings and reflections; the passion that is Vivienne Westwood. While the diary was written, primarily, with the intention of warning people of the danger we’re in from climate change (a subject that feels particularly pertinent given fracking’s recent UK go-ahead, despite a rejection from Lancashire council), it is, as Vivienne puts it, also a great thing to do for yourself. Very motivating read, to Vivennes's way of thinking and the time she devotes for environmental causes.

I find her fascinating and whilst I don't always agree with her and can't see the point she is trying to make on many occasions; I was still looking forward to reading her 'diary'. And, to clarify, nothing she says is of the hateful manner, so it's the little things like what does art really mean? I’ve been a supporter of Leonard, a Native American who has been wrongly imprisoned for 35 years, for a long time. She lives a busy, busy life - and as she records her daily routine we begin to get to know this woman - in an intimate productive way. I totally admire her dedication and energy and can only hope to be that active when I reach her age!I need to admit I learned many things about topics which should be very close and important for all of us. Her thinking on culture and the importance of engaging with the world to develop culture (not consumption) was very clear and inspiring.

Honestly, just from reading this book, I can tell that Vivienne Westwood is a wholly genuine person. Beginning with a great sweep through those early decades of activism and fashion (activism in fashion) – rebelling through clothes at 430, Kings Road; plundering history for the Pirates collection; quietly shaping a manifesto that would later evolve into the Climate Revolution project – the idea is to access Vivienne’s point of view. I decided to donate some money to the Green party, but now they are thinking of giving it back, having discovered I have a Luxembourg company that minimises my tax liabilities. While it's not a comprehensive biography--we have Ian Kelly to thank for that--it is as close as we can get to the inner workings of her mind.What we have here then is a story of the last six years of Climate Revolution and the journey that got us there. This book is in the form of a journal that Vivienne kept from 2010 through 2016, containing drawings, art she admired and photographs. To be so full of energy and life at her age - and to rally against what you believe is detrimental to the future - environmental, creative and judicious. Vivienne does not talk about Fashion as long as it's not connected to her second (if not first) love in her life which is climate revolution and politics.

Since then, she has written two or three entries each month, discussing her life in fashion and her involvement with art, politics and the environment.

Then again, Vivienne might be hanging out with her friend Pamela Anderson, or in India for Naomi Campbell‘s birthday party, or watching Black Sabbath in Hyde Park with Sharon Osbourne. At the ceremony, Westwood was knicker-less, which was later captured by a photographer in the courtyard of Buckingham Palace. Westwood advanced from OBE to DBE in the 2006 New Year's Honours List for services to fashion,and had thrice earned the award for British Designer of the Year. Dame Vivienne Westwood is one of the icons of our age: fashion designer, activist, co-creator of punk, global brand and grandmother.