Issue no°9 Spring and Summer 2014
When the gentlewoman magazine portraits Vivienne,
shot in black and white, within the poppy red frame cover on Jeremy Leslie’s
magculture blog, immediately I decide that I must shop a copy of my very own.
For echoing the poppy red cover, the front
and back linings are identical colours, and Dame Westwood welcomes the readers
in a relaxation pose on page 2. Divided into 4 parts--- international designers’
fashion advertisement, modernisms, womanhood and fashion, the whole magazine
adapts Matt art paper, gloss coated art paper and recycled wood-free paper to
distinguish its 4 themes. Those interviewees’ first names appear at upper left corner
on even page numbers, and the last names on the odd page numbers, which, an
interesting details to notice while reading the articles.
On the 12-page interview, this Dame Punk
had once sneaked out a spoon from a restaurant just because Westwood couldn’t
bother buying some kitchenware. But for the shopping advises, she suggests that
“if you really like something, then you should try to buy it. And if you can’t
afford it, don’t get something that is half the price but that you don’t really
like. Don’t do that” (Orr, p.121). As many designers, Westwood considers buying
high quality products is good for the whole economy and environment. “What’s
good for the planet is good for the economy”, that’s why she has been always so
caring that her clothes were really good value for money. Yet, I still found
out that some parts of Westwood’s Anglomania collection are now made in Korea,
since those were used to made in Italy, and some of her scarves series containing
too high percentage of polyester elements.
What surprises me is about Dame’s opinions
on 20 th century iconoclasm, in which she extrapolates her contempt
from Ai WeiWei’s action on “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” to those contemporary
artists, that they have no culture, no ideas and no spirit to communicate, “it’s
so dead.” As being a climate activist and history additive, and her identity
and business have no need a yet further explanation, Westwood has her very
powerful voice to utter.
This biannual independent ‘womanhood
exclusive’ magazine no. 9 issue joining Westwood are 28 exceptional international
women of wit, brilliance and beauty. Without
editor’s words, the texts, the photography and the design, tells it all.
Collecting paper production is just as
shopping quality clothes: “Buy less, choose well, make it last”.
For more inside story of making the
gentlewoman, please visit Jeremy Leslie’s interview with the Editor-in-Chief, Penny
Martin.
Photography and Works Cited:
Orr, Deborah. ‘When Vivienne Talks, We
Should Listen’. The Gentlewoman No.9. London: the gentlewoman, 2014. Pp.114-25.
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