PARIS: “Save Venice” was the theme of Vivienne Westwood’s latest Paris fashion show as the famed designer and eco-activist called for action on climate change.
The grand dame of British fashion brought a taste of Venetian carnival to the catwalk on the fifth day of Paris fashion shows on Saturday.
Masked harlequins and macabre jesters, distorted faces and neon make-up — Westwood’s spring-summer 2016 collection paid homage to Venice’s famed carnival, and married it with flashes of her renowned punk ethic.
The Gold Label collection, presented in a show called “Mirror the World”, focused on the need to restore the lost glory of Venice.
“The problem there is one of repair, but also one of climate change,” said Westwood in a video on her blog ahead of the show.
She praised the Renaissance period of the city as “the period of the greatest flourishing of art that the West has ever known. Venice was an emporium of culture”.
Westwood is known as perhaps the most political of fashion’s top tier designers, and she used the build-up to Saturday’s show to call on people to join a march against climate change and economic austerity in London on Nov 29.
“It will be massive,” she said in the video. “Bring your children. The more people, the better the chance to change the world.”
Her show in London last month had focused on opposing austerity measures.