Vivienne Westwood

I wish you didn't have to design so often. Try to do quality and cut down on quantity. I think fashion is very, very important.

I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics. Because I'm a fashion designer, it gives me a voice, which is really good.

The fight is no longer between the classes or between rich and poor but between the idiots and the eco-conscious.

Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes.

Instead of buying six things, buy one thing that you really like. Don't keep buying just for the sake of it.

I think it is a good thing to buy less and choose well - it's good for the environment and to be fair it's also good for me because my clothes are quite expensive.

There is a real connection between culture and climate change. We all have a part to play and if you engage with life, you will get a new set of values, get off the consumer treadmill, and start to think, and it is these great thinkers who will rescue the planet.

Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it's popular, it's not culture.

It's true the punk fashion itself was iconographic: rips and dirt, safety pins, zips, slogans, and hairstyles. These motifs were so iconic in themselves - motifs of rebellion.

The sexiest people are thinkers. Nobody's interested in somebody who's just vain with a hole in their head, talking about the latest thing - there is no latest thing. It's all rubbish.

I talk to fashion designers and say I want some money to save the rainforest, and they say, 'Oh, I agree with you completely Vivienne. Yes, climate change, it's definitely happening,' but they don't feel that they can do anything about it; they don't even think 'Well let's stop it!'

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It's always sexy, and it's always with the same result: making women look fantastic.

But, the thing is, since I always had my own little shop and direct access to the public, I've been able to build up a technique without marketing people ever telling me what the public wants.

At one time, I was very angry. I even treated fashion like a kind of crusade: you were either with us or against us, that kind of feeling. Now I know we need ideas, not kicking down a door.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don't understand.

I don't think punk fashion is a specter or overemphasized - it made a big impression, as there had never been anything like it before.

If you wear clothes that don't suit you, you're a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better.

I was a punk before it got its name. I had that hairstyle and purple lipstick.

I'm a fashion designer and people think, what do I know?

My son has followed fashion since he was a punk. He and I agree that fashion is about sex.

If you're too big to fit into fashion, then you just have to do your own fashion.