Vivienne Westwood sings ‘message to the world’ on 80th birthday
London, Apr 8 (efe-epa).- At exactly at 8.21 pm on Thursday, the huge neon advertising screens in London’s Piccadilly Circus projected a name: that of the British designer and activist Vivienne Westwood, who celebrated her 80th birthday singing “a message to the world.”
True to her style, the Queen of Punk was dressed in a hat, gloves, jewelry, a bomber-style jacket, a purple skirt and black boots. She celebrated in an intimate way, surrounded by a few family members and friends.
The designer took advantage of this important day to continue her role as an activist with the showing of a 10-minute film “Don’t Buy a Bomb,” which was projected from the brightest and most iconic screens of the British capital, and broadcast simultaneously online.
“Endangered species +1° = tipping point. Tell children the truth. Don’t buy a bomb,” it said.
The film was an alert to societal indifference to looming environmental catastrophes and asking for a climate revolution.
Piccadilly Circus came to a standstill to the beat of a modified version of “Without You,” from the movie “My Fair Lady,” but not sung by Julie Andrews, but Westwood herself from a shop window as shown in the video.
“What a fool I was, what an addlepated fool. What a muddle-headed dolt was I! No, my reverberating friend, you are not the beginning or the end. There’ll be spring every year without you,” Westwood sang to cheers from those present.
The video, by Circa Art, ended with a the phrase: “World Must Have a Stop,” with a picture of cats as a visual allegory to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), to which she has also dedicated a print.
Between applause and a “Happy Birthday” sang in chorus, the Queen of Punk gratefully received a gift from her relatives, although she preferred to let her husband, the Austrian artist Andreas Kronthaler, blow out the candles on the cake for her.
At 80 years of age, she said that “the fight must continue” and that is why she does not intend to stop working to change the world, either with her revolutionary clothes, or with political actions such as Thursday’s. EFE-EPA
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