Vivienne Westwood shows during Milan Men’s Fashion week – Fall/Winter 2014-15

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Her concepts and designs always bring out a thought provoking look. During Milan’s Men’s fashion week it was a fight against fracking. According to her “**Attention** Fracking is the Big Fight. In England we must all challenge the irresponsible behaviour of our governments who are trying to force fracking upon us with no consideration of alternatives. The public must be informed. One thing is sure: At this point in time we must think before we rush into further action to fracture our Earth.” This might explain her inspiration for various designs that include a chemical theme. Her collection was also very edgy and colorful with various design patterns and prints. Her use of color block patterns, striped and mosaic designs gave a contemporary feel to traditional suit designs and colors. Her fracking inspired designs might be connected to the first couple of looks and towards the end of the show as well. It included a black leather and padded motorcycle jacket with pants combination followed by a gray tracksuit with dual zippers on the sweatshirt and zippers on each of the legs. Which potentially might have resembled a fashionable version of a bio-hazard suit. Another version of that might be the gold tracksuit, showing a different version of the same idea.

The collection also consisted of classic tailored suits in both gray and purple tones with modern flare. Her version of the gray suit had a charcoal color block design both on the blazer and pants. Other suits in the collection consisted of mosaic and tribal style prints, with one having a cropped blazer, while another was loose fitting and had a double breasted style blazer containing a single row of buttons. As modern looks go, this show did not disappoint in the end with an oversized quilted jumper sweatshirt paired with mesh sweatpants for the ultra-comfortable street wear look. Her inspiration and cause was visible throughout the collection which included a quilted cardigan with a ’Vegetable Oye’ patch. It was worn over a light blue printed tee with multiple designs that included a propaganda tape, Merry Xmas ornaments and phrases that encourage discussion and debate about the world’s problems. A statement was made with this collection both in the fashion industry and with the social community to inspire thought, discussion and debate. Ultimately fashion gives us that avenue for voicing our inspirations without even saying a word.

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