"It is simply not enough to follow" (Vivienne Westwood, 2010)

All of you will have heard of Vivienne Westwood and all of you will have heard about climate change but some of you will not have put the two together and come to the conclusion 100 Days of Active Resistance.


Any Westwood fanatic (or indeed Friday Night with Jonathan Ross fan) will know that she has been campaigning to prevent climate change for some time. After her appeal on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross she then made her way to Fashion Week armed with a runway decorated as a rainforest; showing her deep involvement with The Prince’s Rainforest Project.


Now she is reaching out to us in an entirely different way.


On September 8th she launched her 100 Days of Active Resistance with the denim brand Lee.


The Dame herself said  "It is that you get out of life what you put in and that the real experience of the world involves thinking. It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prize-winning best seller. This is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better. This involves culture which can only be acquired by self-education: human beings should mirror the world".


The idea behind the scheme is for people all over the world to submit their artwork and one will be chosen everyday as the ‘image of the day’.


Now 44 days in and the website is full of some of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen. My personal favourites so far are days 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, 21, 28 and 29. You'll have to go to the website www.ar100days.com to see them :p You will notice that all the images come with captions expressing the artist’s view on active resistance, climate change and the World as a whole.



Although I am not an avid saver of the world (until America stops rolling around in Hummers and lighting Vegas up like a Christmas tree, me throwing my Diet Coke can in the right bin is not going to make the slightest bit of difference-BAD VIEW TO TAKE I KNOW!!) I cannot help but be immensely inspired by this woman. Of course, there are people who inspire me but none to the extent of Vivienne Westwood. She has this insane ability to actually make me stop and think about things, to actually consider every aspect. She gives people a platform on which to express themselves. She encourages you to think outside that very small box. I guess there truly is method in the madness.


Who else can you say does that, on that wide of a scale?


I think for the next 56 days we should all participate in the 100 Days of Active Resistance, not necessarily by submitting some art but by being brave enough to be who we want to be and by saying what we have always wanted to.


As the great lady herself says "it is simply not enough to follow…"  


To view her interview with Jonathan Ross go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My8er6jRAP4 for part 1 and http://www.youtube.com/watchv=2Kd4fbH8REs&feature=related for part 2